Amber warning for freezing rain on Sunday

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Amber warning for freezing rain tomorrow has been issued by the met office.
www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/uk-warnings#?date=2022-12-18&id=954fa30f-5c96-4d3d-9706-4484aac7d2bf

If you are in that region, prepare to change plans and not travel during the warning time. Be prepared for potential powercuts.

A graphic from weather.gov which demonstrates how freezing rain occurs under an advancing warm front.

Freezing rain is so treacherous. I'd rather deal with snow!

DH pretty much skated across the driveway this morning after the rain made a lovely slidey icy layer on the frosty ground (Manchester). Seems a lot better this afternoon, enough rain has fallen to melt the ice now.

I'm following this, Kitten!

Absolutely Boule, I regard it as the number one short term potentially highest impact weather in the UK. It is so nasty and often underestimated.

Thankfully, this will be. transient issue this time in terms of how long any freezing rain might last. So if you are in the warning area and it happens, sit tight and be patient while it goes through and warms up.

Its not just the freezing rain itself that's the issue with this one, but also combined with gales - which means that things like power lines and tree branches could rapidly become encased in ice and fail.

I’m on crutches and meant to be heading to Newcastle tomorrow with friends 🤔

Absolutely.

not in uk but we had freezing rain on thursday.
streets and pavement were unpassable. so unbelievable slippery.
the current situation (freezing night, just above freezing during day) doesn't help. main road and bike paths are gritted by now which helps.

take care out there. don't try to go out when it starts to rain. it's a recipe for broken bones and concussion.

I wish I could give better timings Ursula rather than the 'all day' that the met office have issued.

Memories of a few freezing rain incidents when we lived in Hungary. I slid backwards down our driveway into the basement garage in the car one year. Terrifying.

Thanks for this. Going to get a few things now and stay home tomorrow. Not worth trying to get out.

At the moment, looking at the met office impact matrix, there's an up to 50% chance of severe impacts occurring because of this weather scenario.

I've experienced freezing rain in Germany before, and it was so unbelievably slippery; even going out for a walk was out of the question, not to mention driving.

I would do the same Bagzzz if I lived in the region. We had freezing rain down here a few years ago and it very quickly shut the rail network.

Ugh, I'm travelling from Glasgow to N Lincs tomorrow.
Considering doing it overnight now instead.

I remember freezing rain in c1995 my DS was doing a paper round in a scattered rural area, couldn't use his bike so together with DH they walked the very treacherous four miles.

Yikes! that sounds horrendous. Stay safe mums 🙏

Sorry if its been asked or a stupid question, but is freezing rain where it instantly becomes ice?

i’m in the amber area and the yellow one and I do need to go out tomorrow!

Yes it is @ListenLinda. Really dangerous as so slippery.

It's not a stupid question. Yes, freezing rain is when rain comes into contact with surfaces and instantly turns into ice.

It is a term usually reserved for when snow falls through a warmer layer of air, then through a sub freezing layer of air. It becomes supercooled (at or below freezing) but doesn't become solid until it hits a surface.

Sometimes people can confuse the term with when rain hits a frozen surface and freezes. Both very dangerous for road travel. The difference with freezing rain is the potential for encasement of things like cars, trees, phone lines etc with a layer of ice.

We found that for instance a few years ago, our car became impossible to get into as it was covered with a glaze of ice. Our house windows were also encased in see through ice.

It can look absolutely stunning though on trees etc. Beautiful but deadly.

@OhYouBadBadKitten Is this what they call an ice storm?

We had that this morning - made surfaces incredibly slippery and treacherous.