Severe Icing encounter yesterday

[airguy]

I was coming home from Dallas to Midland yesterday evening when I had one of those "interesting" moments in life - I had an encounter with severe icing in hard IMC conditions, at night. The arctic blast that came into west Texas from New Mexico and Colorado had collided with the warm moist air coming up from the Gulf, and it was dropping winter mix all over the place by the bucketload. The temperature and dewpoint had both converged at 28F, visibility was down around 1/4 mile or so and there was moderate snow and sleet which suddenly changed to freezing rain, and within the span of 45-60 seconds I had accumulated just over 1/4" of clear ice on all forward surfaces, including my windshield.

Fortunately in my case, it was not an NTSB report waiting to happen - I was in my pickup on I-20 westbound between Abilene and Sweetwater - but it was an absolutely eye-opening lesson about just how dangerous super-cooled large droplets can be. I would never have believed how much ice could accumulate that fast. I had my defrost and wipers both on high and could only manage to keep about 4"-6" inches in an oval pattern above the defrost vents clear of ice. Traffic on the interstate was at a virtual standstill with spun-out cars about every 1/4 mile, I made the next 30 miles in 4-wheel drive at 20 mph until I got into warmer conditions where the road improved.

I will always handle icing forecasts with great care after seeing it firsthand from the relative safety of my pickup.

 

[gismo]

I was coming home from Dallas to Midland yesterday evening when I had one of those "interesting" moments in life - I had an encounter with severe icing in hard IMC conditions, at night. The arctic blast that came into west Texas from New Mexico and Colorado had collided with the warm moist air coming up from the Gulf, and it was dropping winter mix all over the place by the bucketload. The temperature and dewpoint had both converged at 28F, visibility was down around 1/4 mile or so and there was moderate snow and sleet which suddenly changed to freezing rain, and within the span of 45-60 seconds I had accumulated just over 1/4" of clear ice on all forward surfaces, including my windshield.

Fortunately in my case, it was not an NTSB report waiting to happen - I was in my pickup on I-20 westbound between Abilene and Sweetwater - but it was an absolutely eye-opening lesson about just how dangerous super-cooled large droplets can be. I would never have believed how much ice could accumulate that fast. I had my defrost and wipers both on high and could only manage to keep about 4"-6" inches in an oval pattern above the defrost vents clear of ice. Traffic on the interstate was at a virtual standstill with spun-out cars about every 1/4 mile, I made the next 30 miles in 4-wheel drive at 20 mph until I got into warmer conditions where the road improved.

I will always handle icing forecasts with great care after seeing it firsthand from the relative safety of my pickup.

IME, sleet is a pretty good indication that freezing rain is nearby.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

It was nasty yesterday, we had thundersnow last night. Beautiful today after the ice fog moved out.

 

[Richard]

Well, ya got me. I was thinking what are you doing flying in hard IFR with a dew point that high...until your 2nd pp.

 

[Ted]

In bad areas, you can get as much as 1"/minute buildup. That's severe.

 

[Ghery]

Had some freezing rain at home a few weeks ago. My wife commented that she didn't think flying in such conditions would be a good idea. I agreed with her completely. And we weren't seeing buildup anything like that. Glad that was on your truck and not your airplane.