Wiki says... That got me wondering about weight on wires.

Rough calculation gives me a 3/8 inch diameter wire in an 1.5 inch diameter sheath of ice would be 0.727 pounds per liner foot, just ice weight.

And a 3/8 inch diameter wire in a 4.5 inch diameter sheath of ice would be 6.255 pounds per linear foot, ice weight.

Add the weight of the wire and figure one to several hundred feet between supports(poles/towers), that's a hell of a strain.
Then, of course, the bigger the sheath of ice, the more resistance to wind force.
Damn, bury those babies.:unsure:

We had one of these in Boston about 10 years ago. We landed after a visit home to Florida to find the entire city covered in ice. Definite climate shock but it was amazingly beautiful. I felt lucky to have missed the actual event while still being able to enjoy the after effects.

And on the topic of scale: It's gotta be pretty cold so that's WITH shrinkage!?:eek2:

I saw one of those in Boston during the winter of '62/'63. In the middle of the night we walked fro The Fenway and Huntington, all the way to the Logan Airport, and watched them de-ice planes.
Right down the middle of the street... not a cab, not a cop, not a truck, not a vehicle, moving. It was glorious.:D

We lived in this area just before we moved back to Colorado just over a year ago. I hear they haven't had power for a week in the town we lived in. Check out the shot of the tower that collapsed. It just looks wicked.

That is very scary. Those power towers look so monstrous and impervious and this is what a little dose of Mother Nature does.

So much for the might of man . . .

Fuck. I hate the tropics. Its so damn hot in cambodia I can't even BREATHE, let alone sleep.

Yeah, Montreal would be considered priority. Tiny little towns like ours -- NOT! We were okay, though, we were lucky enough to get a generator before the price gouging started. I know we had a lot of ice build up. My poor maple tree looked like it got partially beheaded. It's just starting to look normal now. Let's hope this crazy weather doesn't land us with another ice storm, microburst or blizzard....:p

This kind of thing adds to the allure of plans to live off of the grids. (Warning: that's one ugly site.)

We had something similar happen to us a year or two ago (I can't remember for the life of me when exactly it was). I do know it was in January. It was very beautiful, but unfortunatly I didn't have a camera at the time so I don't have pictures. Maybe I can find some online...

Many were out of power for a couple weeks though. It was awful. I was one of the few lucky ones, but I was so scared to drive on the icy roads.

How come every time it happens to snow or freeze up somewhere, some clown comes out saying that global warming is a rumor? There's ice in my freezer...does that mean that the polar bears are not losing land to stand on?

Minor point, but they're not losing land to stand on, they're losing ice to hunt on. That's why they're hungry. ;)

The glaciers have been melting for the past 10,000 years or so. There are tropical plant fossils in Antarctica from before the last ice age.

Just because its new to you doesn't mean its new.

Antarctica moved. Google "Pangea."

"So I guess that ice shelf didn't actually separate from the north of Canada last week"

No, it happened 16 months ago. Wonder why the wait to tell the world?
"Ms Weir was poring over satellite images in 2005 when she noticed that the shelf had split and separated.
She notified Luke Copland, head of the new global ice laboratory at the University of Ottawa, who initiated an effort to find out what happened.
Using US and Canadian satellite images, as well as data from seismic monitors, Professor Copland discovered that the ice shelf collapsed on the afternoon of August 13 2005."
See the Fri Dec 29 2006 article online at the Guardian Unlimited website

Google Chicken Little.