Glaze: An Old Winter Foe with a New Name 



Sleet storms will hereafter 

 be called glaze storms 



It has been with us since 

 the beginning of time, 

 but it was only a year 

 ago that it obtained its 

 christening from the 

 U. S. Weather Bureau 



LAST winter a 

 new weather 

 word made its 

 bow in the daily press 

 — "glaze." Occur- 

 rences of "glaze" were 

 frequently reported, 

 and some of the visi- 

 tations of this atmos- 

 pheric phenomenon 

 occasioned damage to 

 the extent of thou- 

 sands of dollars. 



In previous years 

 the newspapers called 

 it "sleet" or "ice" or "silver thaw." Glaze 

 forms when rain is turned to ice by the low 

 temperature of the objects upon which it 

 falls. Here are some results of actual 

 measurements. A twig 3-16 inch in diam- 

 eter has been found to measure with its 

 ice coating nearly two inches in diameter. 

 One case is reported in which an ice- 

 coated elm twig about six inches long, 

 broken from the tree, weighed 153^ 

 ounces. This was about five hundred 

 times the weight of the twig alone. The 



Beautiful — But Destructive 



The branches of trees and shrubs become encased in 

 glaze, until the whole landscape resembles fairyland 



Not only branches, but 

 telegraph, telephone 

 and electric wires break 

 under the heavy load. 

 The deposits reach re- 

 markable dimensions 



coating on a slender 

 telephone wire may 

 attain a thickness of 

 two inches and up- 

 wards. Indeed, cases 

 are recorded in which 

 the combined thick- 

 ness of ice and snow 

 on such a wire reach- 

 ed the enormous di- 

 ameter of ten inches. 

 No wonder hundreds 

 of miles of wire and 

 thousands of poles 

 sometimes go down 

 when glaze occurs on an extensive scale. 

 But why "glaze"? This word was in- 

 troduced by the Weather Bureau over a 

 year ago, because a distinctive name was 

 needed for these ice deposits. The elec- 

 trical industries had fallen into the way of 

 calling this formation "sleet." But 

 "sleet" means something different— or 

 rather several things. This word is ap- 

 plied by some people, especially in Eng- 

 land, to falling snowflakes mingled with 

 rain. Now it must give way to " glaze." 



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