01/20/10 Ice Storm in the Midwest

Ice storm causing many travel and power problems
in Kewanee, IL (Wed-Thurs.)

Last Wednesday, a classic ice storm took shape across Iowa and portions of west-central Illinois. Some areas in Iowa received near a half inch of ice accumulation especially near Des Moines, IA. Closer to home in west-central Illinois many areas received a quarter inch of ice accumulation with areas around Kewanee, IL receiving between .15-.25" of an inch of ice accumulation. As you can imagine this created many problems around the area causing terrible driving conditions and widespread power outages. During this freezing rain event we were lucky enough to not lose power Wednesday even with a strong east wind snapping many tree limbs. Thursday, was a different story however. After lots of "flickering" the previous night we finally lost power in my area. Nearly a 7-hour outage here with areas to the west being without power for nearly 24hrs. especially in Mercer County, IL. So why did we get this ice storm this past week?...well we couldn't get rid of the melting snow pack due to persistent fog the previous weekend...this helped to create a shallow cold-layer near the surface. A high pressure center with it's clockwise rotation also helped to keep temperatures at or just below freezing as well thanks to the easterly component of the wind during the event. Think of the top-down approach if you have a meteorology background...falling snowflakes from the clouds above hit a warm-layer near 850mb which allows the snowflakes to melt forming raindrops. As these raindrops fall to the surface they encounter a shallow cold-layer...the raindrop cools below 32°F and freezes on contact to any surface below 32°F creating an accumulation of ice. Power lines, trees, and outdoor surfaces usually brunt the heavy load of the ice accumulation. This added weight due to ice accumulation on power lines and tree branches can and often snap tree limbs which fall onto power lines leading to power outages. The more ice accumulation and/or high wind speeds...the higher likelihood of a power outage during an ice storm. Anyhow, I documented this ice storm in the local-area and since I haven't done some "town photography" and I have really used up many photo-ops in the backyard this winter...I ventured all around Kewanee, IL Friday to get some "town/city ice storm shots". I was hoping to get some night shots as well Friday night, but sure enough in less than 6 hours it all melted...doh! I've added some hand-picked photos however below:

Textbook example of how you should
measure ice accumulation

Street signs provide great photo-ops after an ice storm...

Alright, I finally took the lights down, but before
I did I snapped this photo after the ice storm

Snow plow trying to keep up, salting many highways

Heavy ice accumulation here...
(particularly trees oriented north-south)

I actually shot this on our rural-road maybe a mile or two away

East-facing garage...it's obvious why garage doors
don't open in these events routinely

What's incredible is how uniform the
ice can get on these street signs

Wind vane coated in ice as well...

Most roads were in decent shape...however try driving down some
rural-roads after these events...
(You'll be probably cursing up a storm)

Power line encased in ice... hence why many lose power folks...

Even the lawn is somewhat picturesque as
well and not to mention a tad crunchy too

Macro-lens shot...this lens works wonders in the winter season

Home sweet home...only about 41% of Ameren customers
in this county were without power Thursday...

Probably my favorite rural-area shot from this ice storm

Power lines still coated with ice here in this small valley

Along Rt. 78 looking south (this highway actually was a joke until this
past fall when the stimulus money arrived)

Farm in the background with ice coated Willow trees in the foreground

Black Hawk East College

This begins another section of ice storm photos from Kewanee, IL within city limits. Like I said I am still kicking myself for not getting some night photography photos..argh!

From pure observation it appears Kewanee, IL had
more ice accumulation than I expected (.25")

Simple Walmart carts showing the after effects of the ice storm

Stoplights glazed over...

Street sign and an ice coated tree

New hospital on the southwest-side of Kewanee, IL

Ok, not the "going green" a storm chaser is thinking of...

What do you know...power crews are on the scene

Close-up...looks like their were some serious problems here...

Main St. for some reason I'm thinking of the "disconnect between
Wall St. and Main St." or maybe that's just
my political nature talking...hmm

This shot would have been 10x better with some sunshine

I thought this shot was interesting with an ice coated tree
taking up the (foreground) with a street
name sign in the (background)

Another stop light with the icy glaze...
(again would have been spectacular at night) grr...

Willard St. outside Wethersfield High School

where I graduated what feels like forever ago (2004)

You can find these photo-ops everywhere you seemed to look...

Beach St. seems like a dumb name for a street in the Midwest

One more street name sign for the day

I've added a short YouTube clip illustrating
the thaw this past Friday (above)

Well that's all for now...besides the cold here in the Midwest the weather should be pretty dull over the next few days except if you're located in the Southern Plains and Deep South. That's where another ice storm could be found along with some severe thunderstorms as well. I'll be making a short stop to South Bend, IN in the coming days...so I'll probably update at some point with some photos when I get back...