Figured I'd give you a picture of the blowing snow I was talking about Pretty much sums up my drive to work each winter morning.

Omg!

We're enjoying winter here in Wisconsin. Just part of life and having the privilege of living in such a beautiful State!

:D

@Jeremie That looks kinda cool actually!

So you just drive on the road and hope for the best that you don't hit a slick spot? I guess it is hard for me to understand the fact that since it is already cold and there is snow on the ground, how can black ice form? Which would indicate that the snow needs to melt and then refreeze.

Yeah when driving on black ice you just drive as straight as you can, foot off the gas to decelerate instead of using the brakes.

My bad, yes the snow melts and refreezes when we get chinook winds (warm winds in the winter). The temperature fluctuates quite a bit in Calgary.

The snow also melts because the sun is bright and actually quite warm - it's the air that is cold (-20). The sun heats up the road, also so does the traffic help with that. The ice is also formed by compacting the snow under the pressure of the tires.

Right now if you looked on the street in front of ezrobot office, there's snow packed to ice that's hard as cement. The city puts gravel to prevent sliding. The gravel mixes with the snow and ice under the pressure of cars, trucks and semis to make a mixture that's as strong as concrete.

It's pretty surreal actually. The world changes significantly here between the summer and winter. Your car in the winter barely starts and when it does, feels much different. You can hear the chassis creek from the cold. Everything is so brittle this time of year, because it's exposed to -20 to -30 degree temperatures 24 hours a day.

Even being inside the home or building is different. Because the temperatures aren't consistent between different rooms and areas of the home. It's difficult in the winter to maintain an equal temperature that satisfies everyone. Jeremie has a family and probably deals with that issue more than myself.

Another big one is the heater in cars. For me, by the time I get to work, the car is literally just starting to blow warm air. It takes a 10 minute drive for the engine coolant to reach a warm temperature.

Some days when it's real cold (like today) I will let my car run for 10 minutes before leaving my house. The funny thing is that the engine at idle doesn't produce enough heat to warm the coolant! So my car can idle all day and the coolant won't even warm up enough to heat the car. Even though the coolant runs through two turbo chargers and the engine block, still doesn't produce enough heat at idle.

The only way to get heat is to drive the car so the Rpms are high enough to flow the coolant quicker and produce enough engine block heat.

It's pretty remarkable to imagine that humans lived in this environment over a hundred years ago without these comforts to battle the elements.

I imagine in tht cold I would lose the other advantages, but one of thr things I love about my Toyota Prius is it doesn't use engine coolant for the heater. It runs the AC "in reverse" as a heat pump. Warms up the car very quickly and can do it when I am running 100% on battery power and the Internal Combustion Engine isn't running.

However, I don't get great mileage in the winter (45mpg, which is still better than any other car, but I get 55 in the summer, even running the AC which uses a few amps. Just when the ICE is running it is way more efficient in the heat), and Maryland winters have very few days below freezing. It would be way worse in Calgary.

Alan

@DJ

Quote:

It's pretty remarkable to imagine that humans lived in this environment over a hundred years ago without these comforts to battle the elements.