Freezing rain forecast - a Canadian perspective

Rain frozen on overhead hydro wires, slippery roads, lots of fender benders as automobiles go too fast for the slippery conditions, breath freezing as one speaks - all this is part of a Canadian winter. Many people who come here from more tropical climates have a very difficult time adjusting to the long cold winter which can last for six months. Plans have to change, oftentimes, in the winter months due to weather conditions. It gets dark here about 5 o'clock in the afternoon and the sun does not rise until after 7:30 a.m.

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Walking on a Canadian frozen lake. People even go ice fishing on our lakes in the dead of winter sitting in little huts to keep warm. I have never done this, but I believe that some people drink alcohol to keep warm.

One must exercise caution when one goes out on a frozen lake, it may look solid but there may be patches of ice which are not as frozen as others.

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Freezing rain in Canada is not a rare thing at all! This picture, taken off the internet, shows what happens when the rain falls and the temperature drops drastically. I can remember as a young girl, looking out my window in Lachine in the Province of Quebec, and seeing the trees like this. Alas, at that time, the rain had frozen onto hydro lines and all electricity was off for an indefinite time until the workers could restore the power. We were lucky, we had a fireplace and a gas stove so could keep a little warm and cook warm meals. This was in the early 1960's, everything was at a standstill. People could not go to their jobs and the city was at a standstill.

I thought about Canadian ice storms as we had a freezing rain warning today, which means that one should be extra careful walking or driving as it is very slippery underfoot. My daughter's area, Kitchener, Ontario had to cancel some transportation forms due to the freezing rain but here it seems to be okay so far.