<p>Ah, the list of things to worry about grows…</p>
<p>My beautiful state of Alaska 
but we don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Those where the temp is above freezing during the day and it drops below at night.</p>
<p>Depending on the particular time of the year this can encompass almost any area where you have snowfall. I have lived most of my life in the upper midwest and I have found packed snow ice on the interstate to be much more of a threat than black ice. It gradually reduces the traction level and then when one car in traffic starts to skid you end up having a massive pile-up in which you are pretty much along for the ride as semis come sliding towards you. Not fun on the Kennedy at 5:30 on a Friday.
Black ice usually tends to show up on less traveled secondary roads where snowmelt drains acroos the road surface. Hopefully you won’t be wailing down these roads in the dark at a high rate of speed and even if you are, it will usually just be your one car on the road, which gives you room for a save if you hit a patch of ice.
I know it sounds pretty nonchalant, but we just deal with it as a part of winter. Iowa used to have a policy (don’t know if it has changed) where they just got the loose snow off the roads and it was the responsibility of the drivers to adjust to “winter driving conditions.”<br>
Practice is the key; go out when it’s slippery and try to create some skids so you know how to recover from one. When it might be slick; give the brakes a quick stab (when noone is behind you) to judge what the level of friction is like. When it gets bad you have to slow down and allow more stopping room; it’s amazing how far you can slide on a good slick surface.</p>
<p>The dark-paved walkways near my dorm (in Massachusetts) had problems with this in the winter, ironically caused by attempts to make them more walkable. It would snow, and Facilities would clear out and melt the snow. Then the melted snow would re-freeze as ice. Then I would leave the dorm in the morning and fall backwards onto my butt!</p>
<p>We have problems in Western NY when the weather starts getting colder, and what is fine by the shores since Lakes Erie and Ontario are still relatively warm is much colder further inland and/or at higher elevations, where black ice is a hazard (almost as much as the roaming deer!). Then later on the tables are turned, and we go from bare ground inland to a total white-out due to lake-effect snow as the lakes cool.</p>
<p>I have been worrying the past few weeks already, since the monarch butterfly and goose migrations started MUCH earlier this year, like they knew to get out while the getting out was good…</p>
<p>Well, we have it. But I certainly wouldn’t use that as a college selection criterion… We’re all usually quite aware of what days it might occur and walk a bit more carefully in the few spots where it might occur. As far as driving, areas with black ice also usually have quality snow plow and sanding regimens. So on your list of things to worry about, I’d put this pretty low.</p>
<p>Yup. Rochester - we pretty much drive on nothing else all November, December, March, April. We’re actually glad when our roads are covered in snow (which happens soon enough). :D</p>
<p>No sweat though. Just leave room in front of you!!! LOL</p>
<p>southern new england</p>
<p>I hear black ice is a big problem in Denver. Makes sense because they have such wide temperature fluctuations between day and night.</p>
<p>I think anyplace where black ice does not normally occur such as many of our southern states is where one would have the most trouble with black ice. The northern states and its drivers and their cars are more used to it and can handle black ice when it occurs.</p>
<p>Coastal Connecticut with the mist coming off the water in the cool evening. it floats a bit to the north. Just as the temperatures drop as a result of the lower overnight temp combined with the cooler distance from the LI Sound ----->> a deathtrap as soon as the mist hits the main roads.</p>
<p>Seattle…not too often thank goodness but on those hilly streets it can really be unnerving! Make sure you’ve got insurance ;-o</p>
<p>why? seriouslly, you could ask about animals that turn into road kill, bad drivers in the rain, earthquake prone areas, hurricanes areas, tornadoes, heat, hunmidity, not knowing what an avocado is, people walking in bikinis that cause distraction, fog, drizzle, big trucks, etc etc etc</p>
<p>you can’t go through life being afraid of stuff, does you no good, every place has something that is irksome</p>
<p>
An essential truth.</p>
<p>I hear that you’re pretty safe in Florida or Arizona.</p>
<p>We had some snow once in central Florida, in 1977. But no black ice.</p>
<p>I’ve spun on black ice, quite memorably. I actually spun and then slid sideways, perfectly, right into a parking space. Friends who saw it (in front of my school) thought I’d done it deliberately.</p>
<p>I’ve encountered black ice in Portland (OR), on Seattle’s eastside, the suburbs of Philadelphia, the NJ turnpike, the entire Boston area, western MA… anytime you get rain on a sub-zero road, or snow on a warm road, you slow WAY WAY down–and watch the idiots in 4-wheel drive trucks slide off the side of the road, because 4-wheel drive doesn’t help you a bit on black ice.</p>
<p>This video is my favorite video of the dangers of driving on wet ice. It was filmed last winter in Portland, OR.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt9Tv40gmdc[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt9Tv40gmdc</a></p>
<p>and to think I pay good money to go to the movie theater to see things like this when it’s free on Youtube. All I can say is wow! How’d you like to be the cop who had to write up those accident reports?</p>
<p>Here’s another problem that should disappear with global warming.</p>
<p>Black ice is proof that 4WD vehicles do not have magic tires.</p>
<p>Western Washington can get pretty nasty in winter. Daytime temps 35-40 plus nighttime temps 25-30, combined with hills and a misty rain = lots of Slip-n-Slide fun.</p>