[Sca-cooks] salt cod and freezer burn

[Barbara Nostrand]

Noble Cousins!

Greetings from Solveig! Black ice appears to be a combination of ice, soot,
and other debris. It is not truly clear although it is fairly clear. The
important thing about it is that it is pretty hard to see when you are
driving. The soot is there all the time. If it is lying on top of the
snow, then you can see it pretty well, but if the snow melts and then
refreezes into ice, then it can be pretty hard to see.

Salt is only used on roads in relatively warm areas as it actually makes
the roads more dangerous in colder areas. If the temperature reliably
goes much below +10 deg. F. then salt starts turning into a bad idea.
The soot in road ice reduces spectral reflections and can make it even
harder to see. However, even perfectly clear ice will be quite difficult
to see.

Where I grew up, the spread gravel on the snow and even it out with
road graders. Eventually, after several weeks of sub zero the snow
starts to disappear. You also check pass reports before you start
your trip and possibly during the middle of it. Some highways are
seasonal and close for the Winter. Some mountain roads get an average
annual accumulation of 20 meters. The snow is not going anywhere and
nobody tries to "remove" it from the roads until Spring. They plant
poles along the roads in the Fall so that they can find the roads in
the Spring.

				Your Humble Servant
				Solveig Throndardottir
				Amateur Scholar

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| Barbara Nostrand, Ph.D.         | Solveig Throndardottir, CoM       |
| deMoivre Institute              | Carolingia Statis Mentis Est      |
| mailto:nostrand at acm.org         | mailto:bnostran at lynx.neu.edu      |
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