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Tri-EPIC Regional Emergency Planning Committee
Core Members:
Towns of Brimfield, Charlton,
Douglas,
Dudley,
Oxford,
Southbridge,
Sturbridge,
Webster, and
Harrington Memorial Hospital
in partnership with: American Red Cross, Central MA EMS Corp., Central Region Homeland Security Council,
MA Emergency Management Agency, MA State Police, Overlook Life Care, Radius Healthcare
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Specific Disasters of Local Concern - Ice Storm
An ice storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain, also known as a glaze event or in some parts of the United States as a silver thaw. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least 0.25-inch (0.64 cm) of ice on exposed surfaces. From 1982 to 1994, ice storms were more common than blizzards and averaged 16 per year.
Ice storms occur when a layer of warm air is between two layers of cold air. Frozen precipitation melts while falling into the warm air layer, and then proceeds to refreeze in the cold layer above the ground. If the precipitate is partially melted, it will land on the ground as sleet. However, if the warm layer completely melts the precipitate, becoming rain, the liquid droplets will continue to fall, and pass through a thin layer of cold air just above the surface. This thin layer of air then cools the rain to a temperature below freezing (0 °C). However, the drops themselves do not freeze, a phenomenon called supercooling (or forming "supercooled drops"). When the supercooled drops strike ground below 0 °C or anything else below 0 °C (power lines, tree branches, air craft), they instantly freeze, forming a thin film of ice, hence freezing rain.
More information is available at:
Preparing for an Ice Storm
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