Wednesday morning early I drove home from GR after spending the night at my son and his wife’s house. It was 17 degrees F out AND RAINING, which meant as soon as it hit the windshield it was icing up and making it very difficult to see. At intersections where I had to stop I jumped out and scraped the windows, but that meant turning off the wipers, which made it even worse. I had the wipers on full blast and the heat on the defroster up to max. It resulted in just enough area to see to drive.
At some point along the way I noticed black streaks on the windshield. The wipers were literally melting! I touched the inside of the windshield and it was hot to the touch.
I want to know a couple of things. 1) How can it rain when it is 17 degrees F out? That is 15 degrees below freezing. 2) How can a defroster get a windshield so hot it melts rubber?
I took the car to the car wash at the gas station today. Before going in I wanted to clean the rubber off. It took some elbow grease to get it off, but it did come off.
Tao Talk 
Good grief- that is even worse that I was imagining . Raining at 17 degrees? You got me on that one…glad you made it back home without incident.
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I’m not sure how it is possible, wouldn’t it freeze and become snow? Thank you, I said my prayers when I pulled into the driveway.
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I would think at 17 it would be snow.. if it were around freezing freezing rain but it wasn’t close to 32 degrees..
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Yikes. That’s one helluva defroster you have. Well, it’s good to know that if you’re ever hungry when you’re on the road, you can fry an egg on your windshield. Also, if it’s above freezing in the upper atmosphere, even when it’s only 17 F at ground level, the precipitation can come down as freezing rain. Rare at 17 degrees, but it happens.
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lol funny on the eggs. It is a little perplexing about the rain but seeing it with my own eyes I have to believe it’s possible.
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An unusual phenomenon!
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first time in 60+ years seeing anything like it
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You live and learn new thinks every day!
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I dunno if melt or disintegrate is the term, but I’ve seen it happen – that rubber is awful hard to get off the windshield. :-O
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Yes, it is. It took some elbow grease.
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Sorry to see all that sloppy weather you’re dealing with, too !
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No sign of spring here, it’s discouraging :(
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Sorry to hear that. We’ve had some nice weather off and on, but the plants and trees are confused about what season it is. :-D
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Geezh!
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Oh my!!!! That’s really weird!
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Yes it is!
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The envelope of gas surrounding the Earth changes from the ground up. The Stratosphere holds 19 percent of the atmosphere’s gases but very little water vapor. In this region the temperature increases with height. Heat is produced in the process of the formation of Ozone and this heat is responsible for temperature increases which is also known as the Greenhouse effect. This increase in temperature with height means warmer air is located above cooler air. If some air from the Stratosphere were to make its way down to the Troposphere where precipitation begins, I guess that this rain could be warmer than the ground temperature, but I am not an expert on weather conditions.
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Dang, Jim, it sounds like you are a weather expert. It would explain warm raindrops coming down. Are the drops traveling so fast that they don’t have time to freeze by the time they hit?
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That is some defroster you have there. Were the roads slick or were they pretty much clear?
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There were no road problems, which is weird now that you mention it. Roads should have been glare ice! Maybe because so much salt already on them the mist — it was more of a mist than full-sized rain drops — didn’t form ice on the roads?
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You would think it would have stuck since it’s been so cold there. Salt only works above a certain temp I think.
Michigan is more prepared for that stuff. Any snow shuts us down.
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Yes it is a mystery for sure. How is your rain and mud going?
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Oh the mud slide has blocked I-24 and I have to go back roads to work. They finally got it cleared but they will not reopen it because the hill is not secure…they are afraid it will happen again.
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wow that has to be frustrating
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Yes it is because now everyone in surrounding counties are going through mine…so now the back roads are jammed. So I start work at home and wait til 9 or so to come in so I wont be in traffic everyday.
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no end in sight it sounds like.
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Mid March
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Glad we don’t have that here, sounds awful
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It is. It’s been snow-free for two days but still cold as … insert colorful phrase of choice.
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Rhymes with thuggery :)
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that’s what i call a good choice for colorful lol. two that my mom used to say — no still says, are colder than a well-digger’s azz and colder than a witches tit.
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lol, I love those, not heard those two, amazing how different culture sectors come up with them.
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