Christmas in Village a Success Despite the Ice

An ice storm put an early crimp in an otherwise successful Christmas in the Village this past Saturday.

After a week of snow and below-freezing temperatures, winds started coming from the south on Friday, bringing warm air into collision with our cold air. This sudden warm wet air raised humidity levels Friday night to almost 100%. As a result Manchester had warmer wet air sitting on top of cold ground-level air, and as the rain fell it passed into the freezing air, super cooling the rain drops. Normally, if precipitation forms in freezing temperature, the ice crystals form in the clouds and create snow. But when warm rain falls into cold air, the pure rain drops have nothing to form a crystal around, and so you have what's called a supercooled rain drop. If it hits anything that is below 32 degrees F, it freezes instantly.

And thus, all of Manchester awoke to a regional ice rink. Driving was dangerous, as was walking, and even looking at the ice was not recommended.

Luckily, the same warm weather that brought the supercooled rain overnight quickly warmed up the region, melting the watery shell by mid-morning.

From there, it was craft shows and bake sales for the rest of the day.

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by Fritz Swanson

Fritz Swanson has written for The Believer, the Christian Science Monitor, Print Magazine, McSweeney's, Esopus, LSA Magazine, and The Mid-American Review. He serves as a trustee on the Manchester District Library Board. He's the designer and publisher of The Manchester Mirror.

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