Ice Storm

Last week, St. Louis experienced a strange weather event called an ice storm.  The first time I saw one of these was back when I was in law school, and I almost got trapped out in it....so I learned my lesson this time and stayed home.

Not that I had much choice, of course.

So how is an ice storm worse than a snowstorm?  Well, I'll tell you.  You know how when it snows, you can still walk through it because it's either soft and fluffy or cold and mushy?  Well an ice storm is neither soft, fluffy, cold, nor mushy.  It's just cold and hard and slippery.

And dangerous.

Imagine a big hard ice cube, like the kind you get when you freeze ice in those manual-filled ice trays in your freezer.  Now imagine a thick layer of that kind of ice all over the city.  Now imagine trying to chip that type of ice off your car.  Not fun. Here are a few pictures...

The poor UPS guy had to go out in it to deliver packages, but at least he waited until the road had been scraped off a bit.

 Ice on the power lines...not good.

Maybe some day I will live where we don't have these things.