Mesoscale atmosphere icing event, March 1991

During a field experiment designed to characterize winter atmospheric meteorological conditions and the physical properties of the snow cover backgrounds at Fort Drum, New York, a severe atmospheric icing/glaze event occurred. This icing event was documented with an automatic meteorological recording station located near the center of the storm track. The measurement recording was set at a frequency of 10 minutes, and three days of icing precipitation and glaze formation data were measured. Over the three days, varying intensities and/or combinations of freezing rain and drizzle, rain, snow, ice pellets and fog occurred at the measurement site. The severity of this event was described by newspaper headlines such as ‘Ice Storm Closes Jefferson County,’ ‘Ice Creates Emergency’ and ‘Seven Counties in Western and Northern New York State Paralyzed by Ice Storm.’ The synoptic situation during this event included a low pressure center, with supporting cold and warm fronts that combined as an occluded front over central New York state. This front stalled and the resulting mixture of cold and warm air masses included nearly all types of high intensity frozen precipitation. This moisture (when precipitating out of a cloud formation) resulted in up to 1 in (2.5 cm) of ice accretion and glaze formation on all exposed objects over a large geographical area.