In vain do I search my memories of my Alberta yute for freezing rain. Maybe we had it, maybe we didn’t. I remember hoar frost. I remember cold. I remember packed-down snow so dry it squeaked when you walked on it. But from time to time, Ottawa gets freezing rain.
Freezing rain occurs when frozen precipitation falls through a warm layer of air, causing the precipitation to melt and change from solid to liquid. However, because the surface where it lands is below freezing, the liquid precipitation freezes on contact, creating a dangerous icy layer. – GLISA, UMich
Ottawa was under a freezing-rain warning this past week, said warning involving breathless advice to be ready to do without power for up to three days. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen in my house. I mean, I need electricity every day, you know? Usually all day. Surely the weather gods would accommodate a genuine need.
My confidence was not misplaced. We got just a little bit of freezing rain, no more than we could handle. Not enough to interrupt the essential flow of electrons, just enough to coat bare branches with a thin layer of shiny ice. A few weeks ago I was in search of sticks-sans-snow in the desert, after being driven for 30 or 40 minutes on Phoenix freeways. This week I found sticks-mit-ice, after taking 3 or 4 steps out my front door.
