WARNING!
BLIZZARD WHITEOUTS & BLACK ICE
Today, January 29th, 2022 we experienced the most snow we’ve had in this area in over six years. Easily. This storm officially became a full-fledged blizzard. New Englanders know that every NorthEaster’ has the potential to be one—but not all of them do. ‘Blizzard conditions’ exist only when heavy snowfall is combined with winds gusting of over 56 miles-per-hour— and I’m not done yet— critically, these conditions have to last for more than three hours.
The 70 mph winds in Brockton Friday into Saturday night, bested our recent memories. How many of us found ourselves asking: “When was the last time we even had a blizzard?” According to WCVB-TV, the last blizzard of note was in 2016—six winters ago. The Blizzard of 2022 was gonna last for a day and a half when all was said and done.
Without exaggeration, this blizzard already blew huge disproportionate drifts of snow, piled way over three feet high in spots, like those almost halfway up the garage door. The snow blew sideways, creating the illusion of the perfect winter wonderland depicted in every snow globe of our youth, especially when your bratty cousin shook it up.
Overnight and through the day, the blizzard sustained a rate of two to four inches an hour and dumped between ten inches and two feet of the white fluffy stuff. I went outside briefly to experience the storm. As the snow wind swept fiercely and furiously across my face, I confirmed the whiteout conditions newly reported on the TV. Governor Baker was so concerned about the whiteouts that he ordered his residents to stay off the roads; this, in turn, would help the plows better clean the streets.
The governor stated, “Stay home, stay Indoors, stay safe!”. He notedly used that line when the science to prevent COVID-19 presented itself. Without batting a lash, the Governor soon went on to assess the extensive blackouts that began taking their toll across his State. Most of Cape Cod was struggling with the blackouts, as usual.
But the single most unimaginable event of the Blizzard was yet to take shape. The snow’s dark and evil doppelgänger which was lying dormant under the thick pure white blanket: the black ice.
Black ice has become synonymous with the worst-case scenario for truck drivers, young and old alike. Black ice generally appears after the snowplows clear paved roads. But why after the snowfall, you ask? Well, plow drivers have told me that when road snow melts from the ice-melt, and cold temperatures prevail, it then refreezes into a shiny frozen pool— black ice.
Few things come as close to creating instant terror in the hearts of drivers in New England, as does black ice. Deadlier to most than the scary whiteout conditions with its white-knuckle driving, where the blinding whiteness limits seeing even a foot past your car’s windshield.
Back in 2013, I experienced black ice first-hand, and it still terrifies me when I think about it. I was heading north on Route 24, just before the Randolph exit. I didn’t see the black ice AT ALL before I drove over it. The next thing I know my Volkswagen began spinning counter-clockwise. At almost 90 degrees, I clearly remember seeing tiny cars in the distance, heading towards me. That was mid-spin. I tried not to freak out; I even thought of a prayer to recite. I prayed not to die.
My Jetta and its ABS (an Anti-Lock Braking System designed for inclement weather) wouldn’t help much on the black ice. The best of us know better than to hard-brake in the event of spinning on ice. Many years ago, Mr. Anthony, my driving school instructor, impressed these skills on us young driver wannabees. It was unnerving trying to figure out which way my wheels were going and which way to ease the steering wheel. I tried to channel my driver's ed teacher. Then, before I knew it, the car completed a full 180-degree spin. It took seconds, seemed like an hour, but I quickly returned to my intended direction; North, with the traffic, and accelerated past Randolph’s route 28 exit. Whew, that was a close one! No-death-by-black-ice for this lucky Brocktonian.
Now, take a look at the photo at the top of this article, again. Can you see the black ice? No? Maybe? I still see and know where it is because I almost wiped out in that spot, while shoveling my cousin’s blacktop driveway. Look at the shiny ice which measures about two by four feet. Yes, the part in the shoveling that resembles a seal’s head cresting the ocean? It’s what folk around these parts know as black ice. As you can see it’s not that the ice itself is black, it's transparency on the black asphalt makes the clear ice appear black—and voila, the term black ice stuck.
But, it wasn’t until later that day, on December 3, 2013, when ‘black ice’, garbled in someone’s mouth, became a weird euphemism.
I was still shaking from my near-death black ice trauma when I got home and tuned in to a local Boston News Program to watch the weather. It was then that I heard the most peculiar thing. I'm 99% sure I heard what I heard. But I heard it; loudly, clearly.
Two local TV ladies, one a meteorologist and the other an anchor, were casually chatting about a Boston Globe photograph they posted on the screen. The photo depicted what they said was "a massive pile-up in Wo’stah", earlier that day, "caused by ‘Black Guys’ on the road.”
HUH?!!?
‘Black Guys?’ Should she have articulated better while saying black ice? My mind wondered if “Black Guys” on the road really caused a 20+ car crash?? I chucked to myself, then jokingly asked my friend, “Hey did you hear about the black guys on the road that caused a 20+ car pile-up?” We weren't amused.
I wished the meteorologist was more midwestern in her speech at that very moment. Maybe her peer would absolve her of that Freudian slip and help her to correct the misspeak. I somehow knew she meant to say ‘black ice’ caused the pile up, but her Affleckish accent screwed it up. BIG TIME.
They quickly wrapped up the segment and the news program segued to black. Maybe it was a commercial. There was no retraction offered for the 'mis-articulation' that I HEARD.
Didn’t anyone in the production room hear her say ‘black guys’, too? Perhaps it was my mistake; I just heard it wrong? Could it have been a manifestation of Imposter Syndrome, designed to remove racial disparity or accountability from the equation? She could’ve said black ice, after all. Either way, it was just another innocent faux pas, unnoticed and shoveled aside. Like it never happened.
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