Ice Blamed for Falls, Fender Benders

By Ashley Halsey III

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Washington region survived its first winter storm of the season with crumpled fenders, a few bones broken by icy falls and schoolchildren enjoying some time off even if there wasn't much snow to play in.

The lights stayed on yesterday, the major roadways stayed open and weather forecasters said sunshine would return today, melting any ice that formed again overnight.

"As ice storms go, this didn't pack a lot of punch," said Dave Buck of the Maryland State Highway Administration. "The biggest problem was chipping the ice off your car windows and getting out of your parking space."

Buck and his Virginia counterpart, Joan Morris of the Virginia Department of Transportation, said road crews would remain on duty through the night to ensure that the roads are clear of ice for this morning's commute.

The region's two major power companies — Dominion Virginia Power and Pepco — said the storm, which arrived as snow Tuesday and turned to ice by yesterday morning, was a weakling.

"There was no real ice to bring down trees or wires," said Bob Dobkin of Pepco. "It's been a fairly mild winter so far, but it isn't over."

The ice may not have been thick yesterday, but there was plenty of it, especially early.

The threat of a disastrous ice storm, like the one in 1999 that left 400,000 customers in the dark for five days, is a source of dread but also a fact of winter in the Washington area because of its geographical configuration.

The blizzards that torment the Midwest and delight New England skiers often arrive here as sleet and freezing rain, although temperatures like those during the recent cold spell are low enough to entertain snow.

Blame it on the Appalachian Mountains.

Snow requires the air to be below freezing from the cloud level to the ground. But if there are several layers with different temperatures — a freezing layer, a warmer level and a second freezing layer — the snow falling from the clouds melts when it hits the warm air. Then it either refreezes into sleet at the second level of cold air or falls as rain that turns to ice when it makes contact with the frozen ground.

That's what happened yesterday.

The mountains contribute to the problem because northeast winds trap cold air against the eastern side of the Appalachians — in other words, over the Washington region. Then warmer air coming from the west or south slices across the top of the trapped air. Suddenly, there is a blanket of warm air between the snow-laden clouds and the cold air below them.

The result is ice. As some people painfully found out yesterday.

At Inova Fairfax Hospital, most of the emergency room patients, more than 20 people, blamed the weather for their injuries, Inova spokesman Che Parker said.

"Bumps, bruises, some back pain, broken bones," Parker said. "And a lot of it has been wrist injuries, too, from people trying to brace themselves from falling."

Inova Alexandria Hospital saw 23 weather-related injuries, about a third of the emergency room traffic, and Inova Mount Vernon saw seven. Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge reported a slight increase in orthopedic injuries. At Prince William Hospital, spokeswoman Donna Ballou counted 10 ice-related injuries, all minor sprains or broken bones.

Police across the area reported accidents, many of them on side streets where braking cars slid into one another, bending fenders but causing few serious injuries.

The Loudoun County sheriff's office said it responded to 19 weather-related crashes yesterday. The crashes were classified as "property damage" incidents, meaning vehicles slid into other vehicles or into guard rails.

Staff writers Lori Aratani, Jennifer Buske, Steve Hendrix, Tom Jackman, Jonathan Mummolo, John Wagner and Josh White contributed to this report.

Tagged: firstsnow, National Weather Service, snow, weather

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