Turn on your ovens and open the doors to heat your house. That's what trailer people without heaters do.
Why should we buy those things when it doesn't ice like that much around here? It sure as hell doesn't snow every year. And the panic was all about the roads which turned out all to be true... though I don't think you would understand. You try driving in black ice with your car. The evidence is there... all morning I was watching the news with hundreds of accidents. And it really has nothing to do with people's driving.
DON'T do that, they had something on the news about people blowing up their houses from leaving gas ovens/stoves on, and those stoves can overheat and start a fire.
First off you can get all of those for under $10 so its not like you are putting yourself in the poor house. Second its very dangerous to be driving around with an iced over windshield and or slush kicked up form the car in front of you. Third if you are stuck on an ice patch a little kitty litter can make a big different.Also you can use the windshield washer fluid all year long and if you have a cat you can use the kitty litter or keep it for the next time it ices along with the ice scraper. If it is icy and slushy not getting those things just to save a few bucks because it is relatively rare is penny wise but pound foolish. I don't doubt it was ice but I'm guessing not black ice that is formed by the freezing of car exhaust onto the pavement of roads. Its gotta be REALLY cold to get to where the car exhaust is freezing. Its very dangerous because it is so thin you can't distinguish it from the regular pavement.
Hope your bathroom fan is working because all that steam hitting your cold walls and floors will condense and cause damage in the long run.
We got some snow. Mostly frozen rain. It's all white outside, but really wasn't much. Roads were slushy this morning, pretty much clear now. Dallas got all the fun stuff. Adding to the misery that is the DFW area.....fun super bowl week....
Most people don't have problems getting ice off of their windshields. I sure as hell didn't last night when it was sprinkling around midnight. There are dozens of methods you can use.... I think most people know how to remove that stuff. You don't really need to buy equipment. Secondly, yes it was black ice. This is what I mean when I say you don't understand because you don't live here. If you had lived here and watched the news... the term black ice was the central theme of todays news. That's exactly why people are getting into wrecks. How do you think black ice is formed? It rained... the temps were below freezing... that's basically what happens. You can do yourself a favor by reading this. http://www.click2houston.com/weather/26740875/detail.html
Seriously, you and (especially) the news are making way too big of a deal out of this. Ice exists in many places in the world and they don't shut down entire cities. What happened today was ridiculous.
I can agree with you about the blown out of proportion stuff that the news has reported on. But they were certainly not wrong about the roads. <object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" id="video" width="320" height="280" data="http://www.myfoxhouston.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=7875"><param value="http://www.myfoxhouston.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=7875" name="movie"/><param value="&skin=MP1ExternalAll-MFL.swf&embed=true&adSizeArray=300x240&adSrc=http%3A%2F%2Fad%2Edoubleclick%2Enet%2Fadx%2Ftsg%2Ekriv%2Ftraffic%2Fdetail%3Bdcmt%3Dtext%2Fxml%3Bpos%3D%3Btile%3D2%3Bfname%3D110204%2Dup%2Dclose%2Dlook%2Dat%2Dblack%2Dice%2Don%2Dsouthwest%2Dfreeway%3Bloc%3Dsite%3Bsz%3D320x240%3Bord%3D1953738899901509%2E2%3Frand%3D0%2E7515748797450215&flv=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emyfoxhouston%2Ecom%2Ffeeds%2FoutboundFeed%3FobfType%3DVIDEO%5FPLAYER%5FSMIL%5FFEED%26componentId%3D134282933&img=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia2%2Emyfoxhouston%2Ecom%2F%2Fphoto%2F2011%2F02%2F04%2F110204swfreewayice%5Ftmb0001%5F20110204073811%5F640%5F480%2EJPG&story=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Emyfoxhouston%2Ecom%2Fdpp%2Ftraffic%2F110204%2Dup%2Dclose%2Dlook%2Dat%2Dblack%2Dice%2Don%2Dsouthwest%2Dfreeway&category=traffic&title=110204swfreewayice&oacct=foximfoximkriv,foximglobal&ovns=foxinteractivemedia&headline=Up%20Close%20Look%20at%20Black%20Ice%20on%20Southwest%20Freeway" name="FlashVars"/><param value="all" name="allowNetworking"/><param value="always" name="allowScriptAccess"/></object><p style="width:320px"><a href="http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/traffic/110204-up-close-look-at-black-ice-on-southwest-freeway">Up Close Look at Black Ice on Southwest Freeway: MyFoxHOUSTON.com</a></p> I honestly don't know how you can expect someone to drive through that and then get in a wreck and then go to work right after that... especially considering the amount of traffic in Houston. Closing down businesses/city offices/schools due to transportation issues is something that needed to be done. The evidence is RIGHT THERE. If you want to ignore it... you can choose to be naive.
In Minnesota, ice is more common and the term 'black ice' is generally associated with when it gets so bitterly cold that car exahust causes ice on the road. In essence, you have to be careful while driving even if there is not a cloud in the sky. It is common to see local weather casters warn of black ice if it is (for example) -10, even with no moisture in the forecast.
There are but an Ice Scraper is the easiest way and beats the hell out of using a credit card to scrape ice off as I've seen some people in cities not used to ice do. I grew up in Houston and it snowed a few times when I was a kid. As Bobrek noted "Black Ice" is ice that forms when car exhaust freezes on the pavement. It is practically indistinguishable from the pavement until you hit it. What they are calling black ice is really ice in general on the pavement.
Well, I was going by what the definition of black ice was. This was legit black ice... something nobody could see on the roads. Sure, an Ice Scraper is easier... but most people probably won't buy one for the amount of times their car gets iced regardless of the cost. But, that's not a problem anyway, nobody has issues with getting ice off of their cars around here. That honestly doesn't make any sense. The definition of black ice is: from Wikipedia. http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/traffic/110204-up-close-look-at-black-ice-on-southwest-freeway ^ That isn't just ice in pavement since you cannot see it. If there's another term for that, I don't know it, but that's definitely not just ice. You don't see 800+ wrecks in matter of hours due to just ice.
I am not going to disagree with your definition of black ice, but even in Minnesota we see hundreds of accidents from 'just ice'.
