By Steff Gaulter

 

 

Temperatures in Doha are now really quite pleasant. The sweltering days of summer are now a dim and distant memory and instead some evenings actually feel a little cool outside. I’ve definitely seen some people wearing woolly hats and ear warmers, which might be excessive in Doha, but in more northerly parts of the globe, it’s definitely time for those extra layers.

Parts of Europe had rather a rude introduction to wintry weather at the beginning of December when a huge ice storm brought parts of the continent to a standstill. This was triggered by the same system which brought deadly flooding in Morocco, which you may remember from the Weather Addict of December 7. This system also brought flooding to parts of southern Europe including Spain, France and northern Italy. Southwest France was swamped when nearly four times the monthly average rain fell in just 24 hours. Vast regions of the countryside were submerged and cars were picked up by the raging floodwater and piled on top of one another. However, further north other parts of Europe saw a very different type of weather.

For about a week, the rest of Europe had been shivering in cold weather. Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, had been enduring temperatures that were just about scraping over freezing during daylight hours. However, in Perpignan, in southwest France, which saw some of the worst of the flooding, the temperature was soaring to a balmy 18C (64F), despite the rain. It was this temperature contrast between the two different air masses which caused major problems to central parts of Europe.

Freezing rain forms when rain falls onto a surface that is below freezing, causing it to freeze instantly. The precipitation often falls out of the cloud as snow, but then it passes through a warm patch of the atmosphere. This is known as a ‘warm nose’, which describes brilliantly how the warm air just pokes its way into a region. This warm air will melt the snow, meaning it will continue to fall towards the ground as rain, but if the temperature of the ground is below freezing it can become freezing rain.

Ground that has a temperature below freezing will usually have a thin layer of sub-zero air above it. As the rain falls through this cold air, it will cool down dramatically, but often won’t have the chance to freeze. Water with a temperature below freezing is called supercooled and will freeze instantly on contact with anything.

This is what happened at the beginning of December when many parts of central Europe people woke to a thick layer of ice. Everything was coated, from traffic signs and trees, to train lines and roofs. Ice can cause major problems when it encapsulates the landscape because as well as making the roads incredibly slippery, it is also very heavy. It’s estimated that just 6mm (0.25 inches) of ice accumulation can add 225kg (500lbs) of weight per line span of power cables, which explains why ice often causes such a disturbing number of power cuts. Freezing rain often leaves hundreds of thousands of people without power at the coldest time of year.

At the beginning of December, as the ice began to build up, numerous accidents were reported on the slippery roadways and the trees began to bow. Trains simply couldn’t grip the rails properly, leading to major delays. In Prague the entire rail system was brought to a standstill leaving some passengers stuck in carriages overnight. This was the first time that the rail system had been completely shutdown due to poor weather.

In Doha, it simply doesn’t get cold enough for us to see freezing rain, and it’s also fairly rare in the UK, where I grew up. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen any in England, but I did end up in the middle of an ice storm when I went to visit my brother in Ohio. In the US, freezing rain is far more common and they know how to deal with the danger. The storm was so dangerous that a blanket travel ban was enforced.

To anyone who hasn’t experienced freezing rain, a total travel ban may sound rather excessive, but Canadians know only too well how damaging freezing rain can be. In 1998, freezing rain caused the greatest natural disaster in the country’s history. In the first week of January, three storms hit northeast Canada in quick succession, ensuring that before the region could recover from one storm, the next one struck. The freezing rain continued, off and on, for six days. By the time the storm moved away, parts of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick had been coated in 7-11cm (3-4 inches) of solid ice.

The weight of the ice had snapped literally millions of trees and brought down 120,000km (75,000 miles) of power lines and telephone cables. Tens of thousands of wooden utility poles were broken, as were over one hundred huge metal electricity pylons which simply crumpled under the weight of the ice. Power was lost to a million households in Quebec and Ontario, at a time of year when the average maximum temperature in the largest city in Quebec, Montreal, was -7C (19F), and the night time low was -17C (1F). Despite the fact that emergency crews worked round the clock, by the last week of January, over 45,000 customers in Quebec were still without power.

Clearly we’re quite lucky in Qatar and there are a number of benefits to living in a country where the temperature doesn’t drop below freezing. So over the coming weeks, as people start to dig their electric heaters out of the back of their cupboards, it’s worth bearing in mind that things could really be much, much colder!

 

 

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