Ice storms are known to reshape forests, damage infrastructure, and disrupt lives. But they remain so unpredictable that studying them is fraught with difficulties, so instead of chasing one, a group of scientists have decided to create their own.
The project took place at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, situated in New Hampshire and operated by the USDA Forest Service since 1955. Researchers from the agency, as well as a number of universities, have been creating their own storms with the mission of knowing how the extreme weather condition affects forest and wildlife and, eventually, when and where future storms will occur.
Elusive Phenomenon
More than 10 years ago, ecologist and lead investigator Lindsey Rustad watched cars sliding off an icy road helplessly, and thought she wanted to know more about ice storms. But she and her colleague were hit by a better idea: why not work in an outdoor lab and recreate the storm?
“[W]e know almost nothing about [ice storms],” said researcher and environmental systems engineering professor Charles Driscoll from Syracuse University.
In investigating the phenomenon in a controlled environment, scientists can probe at various levels of icing as well as the variable response to and across a given ecosystem, Driscoll explained in a statement.
In the United States, ice storms often occur in a belt spanning from east Texas to New England, with the Northeast suffering the greatest risk. Back in 1998, an ice storm led to a power outage and caused more than $4 billion in economic damages.
Storm Makers At Work
Just last week the team used firefighting hoses mounted atop ATVs to spray a fine mist into the air, varying amounts of which kissed trees in several areas. They used bright orange buckets for monitoring the amount of water applied, as well as gray laundry bins to catch debris that fell from the trees.
Some of the experimental plots were iced while others were left alone as control.
Another interesting area of study is the ability of trees to bounce back from devastating ice storms, as they’re huge and strong organisms that need to “endure all kinds of stresses,” according to plant physiologist Paul Schaberg.
It has been speculated that the so-called ice belt may move northward because of climate change, or that such storms may take place more often. The jury is still out, the team said, suggesting that people should be more proactive in the face of potentially chaotic winter weather occurrences.
Just this month, damaging ice storms marched through the Midwest, with at least six deaths blamed on a three-day siege that brought ice, sleet, and freezing rain to the battered midsection of the nation.
"This rates as just about the worst ice storm I've seen in the 47 years I've lived here," Mayor Kirk Fisher of Beaver, Oklahoma, told USA Today, citing dismissal of church services, spotty power on the east part of their town, and just “damage everywhere.”
Oklahoma and Missouri governors declared states of emergency, while the National Guard was mobilized in Missouri and Kansas to patrol key roads and assist stranded motorists.
