Hello there,

I read a black ice driving tip today i wanted to share. This makes driving a little safer in winter months.

The tip was very simple, if you are following another car if the road becomes very shiny like it looks like rain covering, it may be in fact black ice. To get a feel for if it is or is not, if the car in front of you has mist being spit up by it's back tires then it is probably rain water, but if not it could be black ice.
The only question that comes to mind here for me though is, what if the black ice is covered with water?

The second tip is probably better. This deals with the color of automobiles and optical illusions.

When parked at a stop sign ready to move out, when we look both ways it is possible that there is a car with body color that matches the background color and thus it can appear to be hidden. The background can be trees, hills, even the road surface. I see cars that are light gray blending in with the light gray road surface and i also see dark gray cars blending in with the dark gray or black road surface now and then. The angle has to be right but it happens.
Obviously if you look more carefully you'll see the car, but it sometimes takes a concerted effort.

Good luck out there.

 

Tip #1 Studded snow tires Legal here from Nov. 1 through March 31.

Tip #2 Don't drive.

 

Tip #1 Studded snow tires Legal here from Nov. 1 through March 31.

Longer season here in PA. November 1 to April 15.

 

Longer season here in PA. November 1 to April 15.

A few miles from the house last year. The truck stop on-ramp is a killer during a snow and ice storm.

 

Longer season here in PA. November 1 to April 15.

Here in ND we get to take them off July 30th and put them back on August 5th since there is a 80% chance we won't have snow and ice on the roads for those 5 days!

 

Some ice driving tips without studs.

 

When did weathermen and YouTube posters decide that ALL ice on roads is now "Black Ice". I'm sorry YouTube poster and most weathermen, solidified water on pavement is called "ice".

The Weather Channel (the channel that decided all winter storms need names and can be referred to as "storm of the century") gives us this definition...

The most basic definition of black ice is a thin coat of highly transparent ice. The reason it is transparent is because it blends in with road pavements since it is so thin, making it nearly impossible to see. It's called black ice since it looks black, like the color of the road pavement it forms on.

No, Weather channel, it is transparent because ice is transparent. The white stuff is called "snow". Even hockey rinks are painted white because, ... without the white paint, it is harder for the fans to see the puck!

Here is the original definition of black ice (common when I was a kid in Minnesota and North Dakota...

At low temperatures (below −18 °C [0 °F]), black ice can form on roadways when the moisture from automobile exhaust condenses on the road surface.[3] Such conditions caused multiple accidents in Minnesota when the temperatures dipped below −18 °C (0 °F) for a prolonged period of time in mid-December 2008.[4] Black ice may form even when the ambient temperature is several degrees above the freezing point of water 0 °C (32 °F), if the air warms suddenly after a prolonged cold spell that has left the surface of the roadway well below the freezing point temperature.

 

Not ice driving related so much as general cold weather survival tip.

Something I always thought was universal winter survival knowledge was proven well wrong when I working the oilfield a few years ago.

When you have to work outside in the cold for extended periods bring two or more pairs of gloves. Wear one while you keep the other one or two inside your winter coat between the first and second layers of clothing.

They stay warm and are ready to go when your first pair get too cold for your fingers. Just keep switching them out as you need an duse a big plastic bag of some sort to hold them if they are filthy.

I mentioned that in several safety meetings when I worked there and we were having - 10 and lower nights and got looked at like I just gave away the secret of the pyramids for it. Seemed pretty obvious to me but apparently not to everyone else.

Still had 2 -3 guys nearly freeze their fingers off trying to prove it wasn't that big of deal and that if they just kept moving they would be fine though.

 

A few miles from the house last year. The truck stop on-ramp is a killer during a snow and ice storm.

Hi,

That makes a good general point, "know your area". Know where trouble areas are around your location.
Long while back I went up a hill forward and then started slipping backwards. I slid back about 5 feet, lucky there was no car behind me.
Now i avoid the hill roads and take alternate routes, even if it means going a little farther.

 

When did weathermen and YouTube posters decide that ALL ice on roads is now "Black Ice". I'm sorry YouTube poster and most weathermen, solidified water on pavement is called "ice".

The Weather Channel (the channel that decided all winter storms need names and can be referred to as "storm of the century") gives us this definition...



No, Weather channel, it is transparent because ice is transparent. The white stuff is called "snow". Even hockey rinks are painted white because, ... without the white paint, it is harder for the fans to see the puck!

Here is the original definition of black ice (common when I was a kid in Minnesota and North Dakota...

Hi,

Well a lot of ice is not really transparent, it takes certain conditions to get actual black ice.
If you notice this is the same almost with ice cubes. Most ice cubes are not transparent, but some are. The non transparent ones have a foggy whiteish look to them. Much of the ice outside is foggy and white looking, not quite the same as snow, but the black ice is harder to see because it looks like a wet road.

I thought about it a little more and i think that when rain hits black ice it freezes fast so there would probably be no water on top, but i guess you never know.

 

Not ice driving related so much as general cold weather survival tip.

Something I always thought was universal winter survival knowledge was proven well wrong when I working the oilfield a few years ago.

When you have to work outside in the cold for extended periods bring two or more pairs of gloves. Wear one while you keep the other one or two inside your winter coat between the first and second layers of clothing.

They stay warm and are ready to go when your first pair get too cold for your fingers. Just keep switching them out as you need an duse a big plastic bag of some sort to hold them if they are filthy.

I mentioned that in several safety meetings when I worked there and we were having - 10 and lower nights and got looked at like I just gave away the secret of the pyramids for it. Seemed pretty obvious to me but apparently not to everyone else.

Still had 2 -3 guys nearly freeze their fingers off trying to prove it wasn't that big of deal and that if they just kept moving they would be fine though.

Hi,

Oh yes good idea. Also if the gloves get wet you have a spare on you. Wet gloves are worse than no gloves really.

Yes this is mostly about traffic safety in the winter months but that's a good tip too.

 

but i guess you never know.

No, I'm pretty sure it is called science and it is pretty easy to determine.

Also, the "special conditions" needed to get clear ice include distilled water. Like rain. Rainwater contains no dissolved minerals and there are few soluble minerals on pavement so the chances of getting clear ice is nearly 100% (unless the city treated the pavement with salt - but then no ice would form because salt works great at temperature were rain would be falling).

Also, cloudy ice happens when thick cross-sections of water freeze. Most roads are crowned so there is fairly more than an 1/8" of standing water. Thin films of water (rain on a road) freeze clear.

I've never seen cloudy ice on roadways unless it was si ply snow that was packed over time. But, it all comes down to what you want to call it and if you feel more comfortable with " Black ice"...

 

No, I'm pretty sure it is called science and it is pretty easy to determine.

Also, the "special conditions" needed to get clear ice include distilled water. Like rain. Rainwater contains no dissolved minerals and there are few soluble minerals on pavement so the chances of getting clear ice is nearly 100% (unless the city treated the pavement with salt - but then no ice would form because salt works great at temperature were rain would be falling).

Also, cloudy ice happens when thick cross-sections of water freeze. Most roads are crowned so there is fairly more than an 1/8" of standing water. Thin films of water (rain on a road) freeze clear.

I've never seen cloudy ice on roadways unless it was si ply snow that was packed over time. But, it all comes down to what you want to call it and if you feel more comfortable with " Black ice"...

Hi,

Well what i have seen is ice with small air bubbles and that makes it look cloudy. With no air it looks clear.
Like i said, i've seen cloudy ice cubes and clear ice cubes (for putting in beverages).

How do you determine if it is black ice or water on top of black ice?

 

Black Ice - Very dangerous, dont want to be robbed of your balance!

 

Hi,

Well what i have seen is ice with small air bubbles and that makes it look cloudy. With no air it looks clear.
Like i said, i've seen cloudy ice cubes and clear ice cubes (for putting in beverages).

How do you determine if it is black ice or water on top of black ice?

If you like the sound of "black ice", please use it freely. There are also guys who like buying products labeled "turbo" even though there are no rotating part that could act as a turbine.

Making the consumer feel good is 90% of "building a brand" - I guess the Weather Channel just likes to make everyone feel like a superhero if they survived their trip to 7-eleven on Black Ice.

 

Black Ice - Very dangerous, dont want to be robbed of your balance!

At least the skit is set in Minnesota where real black ice is common.
Even in those safe neighborhoods...

 

Why can't all the ices, just get along. Under that slippery shiny skin we're all just h2o.

 

At mine latitude the black ice reigns at least 30 days every year. Riga has about 100 to 150 freezing-melting cycles every season (and this is why our roads are so cup-hole everywhere). Thus the driving lessons on the slippery are essential to survive.

With the smile most of us hear the poor Stokholm`s problem when passenger buses, hundreds and thousands of them are incapable to start moving out of the stops. Then passengers go to help the chauffeur, and do it with success. Because passengers are Swedes knowing the ice, but buss conductors are India boys, Syrians, Nigerians and whoknowswhatelse, who never in their lives hadn`t seen the any snow or ice beforehand. The driver salary there is too small.

Just first lesson - find a safe place with bumps and try to stop inside between two bumps - when stopped completely, try to start. Learn to feel the inertia, the right amount of gas, learn to shake a car to and fro, learn to shake with increasing amplitude, learn to start in 2 or even 3 change. It will be very necessary in the deep snow and on ice. Warning - all the arts here will kill Your vehicle in seconds if You have an automate. Automates are not useful for ANY driving, especially on slippery roads.

Second lesson - find the safe glade surface with ice up to horizon, some lake or flooded field. Clean away the snow. Now try to learn to feel the best way to play the `power steering` art. Never do it on the road without of extreme need (probably all people around will cause the accident because of panic attack seeing You sliding), but ability for PS may save Your life many times a day if the extreme slippery had come. If have a rear leading axle, learn to steer with gas pedal, if front axle is leading, learn to steer with hand-brake or releasing the gas. Try to drive a sharp turns at maximum available speed, try to increase this speed as Your hands become more and more instinctive. But never do the learning near the any object of harm. Any moment one may loss the control. Try to put the car in uncontrolled couvette and learn to take it under control (gas, steer, handbrake etc).

One of the books made at least on my driving the most impact was the sportsman S.Zasada book "the Safe Speed" - it is worth to look for this wonderful masterpiece constructed of do this and learn that style.

Third lesson is - get learn how to brake safely. Look how to steer with blocked brakes, what is best techniques to brake (if have no brake vibrator), and at least, how to use a roadside snow-gangs to brake if nothing else is helping. Each car is different, thus best is to re-learn all meant every year by new and new.

And last - sorry indeed to tell, always take in the car - lighter or safety matches, shovel, 3 ton hand winch, 70cm high domcrat, A4 sized steel sheet of 3mm thick, 25 mm thick rope of some 20 meter long, two carabines, and in the far travels 1,5 meter crowbar. Very essential would be to keep the minus 40 C class sleeping sack and shaum-plastic rug of at least 15 mm thick. If to have this, even at snow storm at minus 40 C You shall have a chances to survive, if high individual artwork of driving mastery will fail in the nearest bushes, when around are only rain, darkness, woodland and wild bears.

 

RE:""How do you determine if it is black ice or water on top of black ice""
Black ice is not coming from colour or sound, but is literary cliche meaning that if one had success to stop the car and get out to check what is wrong, then he falls immediately, and even going onto four is not strong enough to help him come back into car.

Just people even in physically and mentally best mode are fully enabled on such ice. Similarly like in that anecdote about bicycle owner driving to the food store and buying the litre of Jim Beam. Going out of store he thinks - but what if in the way back I shall slipper and fall down. Bottle may give a crack. Better shall drink it empty immediately. How smart that he did it, because in the way to home he indeed was fell off the bicycle 17 times.
The black ice is just very clean sand-less ice covered by thin layer of water

 

Walking tips?

Traction Cleats.