The Winter Of The Ice Storm

It seems like ice storms are the Weather Mess of the Season this particular winter.  Some winters, locally, nationally, globally are warm, stormy, cold, snowy, windy.

Ice storm damage in Brampton, Ontario
in December. 

We've had all of the above. But we really seem to be getting ice, freezing rain, sleet, all over the map.

To wit:

In early December, it was Texas that got nailed with a nasty ice storm.

Just before Christmas, it was the upper Great Lakes, Ontario and parts of northern New England (including here in Vermont!) that had a nightmare of fallen trees and broken power lines.

Then it was the normally temperate Gulf and Southeast coasts of the United States that got hit by ice in late January.

The granddaddy of them all was an early February ice storm in Slovenia that accumulated more than six inches of ice, causing huge damage.

People in Pennsylvania still have no power this weekend after a terrible ice storm hit that state, along with surrounding regions last Wednesday.

Over the weekend, it was Oregon's turn with the ice as these brief videos taken over the past couple of days prove:




And now, the Southeastern U.S. is under the gun again. Parts or South Carolina are under an ice storm warning for the second time this winter. South Carolina!

Note to my fellow Vermonters: The storm that is expected to cause the ice storm in the Southeast this week, might give us some snow, or it might not. But the good news is it's looking very unlikely we'll get much ice, if any,  out of this system.

I don't have a good explanation as to why it seems like there's been so many ice storms. I don't even know if there have been more than usual, or whether they have been more severe than usual. But that is my impression.

If I had a penny for every tree that broke, every power line that snapped somewhere in the northern hemisphere because of this icy, icy, icy winter, I'd be living in a super luxurious mansion in a toasty warm location where ice storms are impossible.