The past couple of mornings have seen a different kind of weather related culprit on the roads that presents some difficulties for motorists.

Weatherology Meteorologist Nick Carlyle tells Raccoon Valley Radio that there’s been a sheen on the roads that causes slick conditions whenever the dew point and temperatures are within 2-3 degrees of each other, either at or below freezing.

“See usually you can get water vapor to condense into fog usually in this sort of case, and when you have temperatures below freezing, sometimes it can freeze on the roadways like to that and it can lead to black ice.”   

Carlyle equates black ice as the same potential driving hazards as other winter weather related conditions.

“You have pretty much solid ice on the roadway, it can be very easy to slip and slide. If you come to like an abrupt stop or if you don’t leave too much room between you and the vehicle in front of you, that can also happen to. So it’s pretty much the same hazards from like freezing rain or freezing drizzle, I would treat it the same way like that.” 

Carlyle notes black ice tends to be on lesser traveled roads, where there’s not as much traffic or exhaust to melt the frosty conditions away.