Snow People. I have questions.

[beantrees]

So my area just got a record breaking snowfall. Some places are measuring 18 inches.

The news is sending out warnings about the roads. That the salt/chemical mixture used for the roads is ineffective below 18 degrees, and there's a huge possibility of black ice. So, if you live somewhere where it's regularly that cold, do you just drive around and hope you don't hit black ice?? Is there some kind of fancier equipment there or something that gets rid of it?

Also, all of this snow is going to have to melt. Where the heck does it go? Is everything just really soupy and nasty for a while? To make it worse, We had a 65 degree day on Tues, and then lots of rain, enough to flood the creeks on Wed. So the water table is already very high. Does your area flood when the snow melts?

I have never seen snow like this before! Well, aside from skiing but that doesn't count.

[penguingrrl]

I don't know for a fact, but my best guess (and Hs) is that the plows clear the roads enough that they are dark and attract sunlight. So even if the air doesn't hit the necessary 18* for the salt/chemical mixture to melt and dry everything, within a day or so the road itself actually does get warm enough for that. Combine that with the heat of cars going over it and the ice melts and/or evaporates pretty quickly.

As far as the melting, if your water table is pretty high it will take some time as the snow melts for all of that to go down and reabsorb. The higher the water table, the higher the chance of flooding as the snow melts. How quickly all of that happens will depend on the temp. At 35 snow will melt slowly, at 45 it's faster.

[hocus2]

I can't comment on black ice because it is rarely that cold when I am driving. I believe you can put sand on the roads to give them better grip in high ice situations but that has environmental implications. This is why people keep sand or clay cat litter in their cars. You can also drive in lower gears to have more control. People who drive in bad conditions use special winter tires or tire chains as well.

In terms of melt -- it goes where ever rain would. The issue with snow is that snow doesn't melt all at once so you have water that gets blocked from normal flow patterns and then yes things are gross for a stretch.

[momin2013]

I think the temperature for salt/chemicals not to work is actually below -18C (or 0 degrees F), which is pretty cold. It does get that cold here throughout the winter, and yes, we do get warnings to watch for black ice. It can be after a very thin freezing rain or drizzle falls, but also on roads where the heat of the cars warms the road a bit so a thin layer of snow melts then freezes, and turns into black ice.

Around here, it's very common for people to have snow tires on their car during the winter, which give better traction in snow and ice.

The piles of snow on the sides of our driveway are about as tall as me right now. When that all melts, the roads get super messy and slushy for a while, until it all is able to go down the sewers. Since the ground is completely frozen, it doesn't really get absorbed much by the soil.

In areas where the sewer systems are older or insufficient, there is often flooding of streets and, unfortunately, basements. A couple years ago my brother's basement flooded three times due to the older sewer system not being able to absorb all the water.

[justbecause]

Here, they just tell everyone to drive slowly. Sand galore and be extra cautious. We do not have a clear roads policy so basically the state does what it can but the onus is in the driver to be careful. They actually ticket people who go off the road if the police think you weren't driving properly for conditions.
Everyone has snow tires or four wheel drive. We've gone through so much salt this year it's ridiculous.
Melting....yeah, my lawn is going to be a lake since we live at the bottom of a hill.

[andrewsgal]

Black ice is all we get here. Honestly you can see black ice if it's sunny enough it reflects the sunlight.

Drive slowly and if you do encounter ice ride it out and DONT hit your brakes!

[lattelady5]

Just drive slowly. Sometimes you can see it, sometimes you can't. I avoid going out if there's ice but it's not always avoidable. Dh and I have both wrecked vehicles in black ice that wasn't visible.

It will eventually melt and yeah, tons of soupy, slushy muck for awhile. We've had our sump pump kick on a few times because we got so much snow this year.

[beantrees]

Thanks for all the responses!

Everything is a mess here. H has been out clearing the roads in the tractor. The counties just aren't prepared for so much snow. The high will be in the 50's this weekend, so everything should melt. I bet there will be flooding.

[arnegard]

In ND, a lot of times the high temps do not come close to zero. Our city crews have some type of liquid solution that they use on the bridges. Otherwise, they use a sand and salt solution all over the roads. We have months at a time that the residential roads are ice or packed snow and you just know how to drive on them. Here, it is usually a dry snow and no one gets special studded snow tires or chain up their vehicles. 4 wheel drive is almost a necessity though. Main roads and well traveled hills are usually plowed and sanded quite a bit too.