Black Ice

This morning there was a light rain at 5 AM. It was 24°F.
My Perfect Advanced Warning System (PAWS) showed an icy driveway. I let the dogs out and if the slip and slide I know it is icy - PAWS.

I started my car which is encased in ice. Fortunately I have the cold weather package. Five minutes late I go to leave. The car is still encased in ice. I use the scraper and the ice slides off in big easy sheets. Didn't take but 3 minutes extra.

My drive way is slick. Our street is freshly sanded. They use sand in rainy conditions - the salt would just dissolve and wash away.
Thanks to the sand I navigate our hilly curvy street no problem. I get onto a state numbered route. It is a little slicker than my street but as it is almost straight it is not a problem. Speeds are reduced but traffic is moving.

I turn off of the state route and the car looses traction. I slide into the opposing lane. Everyone commutes south to Massachusetts so there is no traffic in the opposing lane heading north.

I drive a stick. I downshift to use the engine for braking - twice. I also tap my breaks. I regain control and get back into the correct travel lane. All of this happens reflexively and in less time than it took to type it.

As I continue on my way I realize my butt cheeks are clenched so tight I think I left a permanent crease in the upholstery.

The rest of the trip is uneventful. On the interstate traffic travels at highway speeds. I made it in safely.

We actually have flood warnings up. Today's high is predicted to be mid-fifties with heavy rain. Add that to the snow melt and the NWS issued flood warnings.

Ahhh, winter driving in the northern states. Don't you just love it?

Isn't black ice fun? Stay safe Phil.

You know my friend, you shouldn't feel obligated to share your good fortune with the weather with us. You can keep it in NH and we won't feel slighted at all.

We were forecast to get 3-5 inches of the white stuff then the freezing rain. We got maybe 2" of snow and no rain yet but freezing rain is forecast. We're also supposed to get temp's in the 50s and heavy rain. No plan on going out. I trust my driving, just not other folks. There's very little upside to going anywhere and lots of potential downside. The current temp' is 20°F so if it's a light rain it will definitely freeze on contact. No problem though; again, we're not going anywhere.

I’m just glad that your experience ended safely, Phil. I remember those kind of driving days when I lived in Toledo more than 40 years ago. I still don’t miss them.

we had some freezing rain here about 2 weeks ago that was pretty bad.  when I went to turn into my driveway after work, I slid right past it...then my wife asked if I was going to salt the driveway...  

Thanks for the thoughts and well wishes.

Yesterdays commute home was as odd as they come.
In NH all of the trees along the highway were encased in ice. Drooping under the weight.
The birches were bent in half.

Yet the roads were just wet. Due to the visuals of the bent trees everyone assumed the roads were ice and the traffic moved slowly. But the roads were fine. Most unusual.

Our street was almost a tunnel with the bent over trees. The road was fine and power stayed on.

Rain, sleet and freezing rain fell on and off all night. The trees creaked and groaned all night. But it is windless so not a lot of downed limbs.

Todays commute was similar to yesterdays. I took the aforementioned turn much slower and had no issues. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Phil

Stay safe, Phil.
I surely don't miss that weather in southwestern Ontario.
I greatly enjoy our Vancouver weather even though it is extremely wet, which I much prefer to ice, snow and slush.

We lost our power for a few hours.

I made a discovery... we got a new electronic thermostat installed. The old old was mechanical but was no longer reliable. The new switch doesn't work with our modified sine wave inverters. I had to start the generator to use our furnace. Sure, I could have started the wood stove but it's hard to control the heat at last nights warmer temps. Maybe it's time to put in full sine wave inverters and be done with it.

We lost our power for a few hours.

I made a discovery... we got a new electronic thermostat installed. The old old was mechanical but was no longer reliable. The new switch doesn't work with our modified sine wave inverters. I had to start the generator to use our furnace. Sure, I could have started the wood stove but it's hard to control the heat at last nights warmer temps. Maybe it's time to put in full sine wave inverters and be done with it.

What is your heat source and fuel - Propane, oil?
I have oil for hot water baseboard heat. I thought it would take a huge solar/battery system to strike and hold the arc that allows home heating oil to burn.

Just wishful thinking on my part - our valley location in a forest precludes any solar.

Oil (and wood when below 20°F) for space heat, propane for cooking and hot water. We fill each tank once a year. We had no problems with the furnace when on solar with the mechanical thermostat. The arc is high voltage but very low amperage, it doesn't draw squat from the batteries. Now the air moving fan does draw current as does the pump that injects the fuel into the firebox. Not a huge amount, but far more than the arc. Some things just don't like modified square wave and I know of no source of knowledge that one can access to find out. It's trial and error. Huge draws are the microwave (65 amps @ 24 v), oven/broiler (80+ amps), and the well pump, again 60+ amps from the batteries. The next biggest draw is the refrigerator. When it comes on it draws over 10 amps for hours on end, so ultimately it's the largest draw in total consumption. That hurts. Our batteries are only 1000 amps @ 24v of which we can use 300ish at maximum without hurting them. Less now due to their age. It runs much better when the sun is shining but our outage was during darkness.

Of course with the generator running we charge batteries and run the house at the same time. It has not quite 3x the output of the solar system, but far less than when CMP delivers our power (more expensive than CMP too).