#MEwx mild temps with snow/rain tossed in and the facts about melting ice on your sidewalk/driveway

Good morning Augusta

A direct, real-time feed from my personal weather station is available for you here.

Today it’s going to be snowy, mixing with rain at times this afternoon. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds will be light and variable. Snow

accumulations will be less than one inch.

Tonight we’ll have cloudy skies with low temps around 30°F. Wins between 5 to 10 mph.

The readings from my weather instruments are:

Our outdoor temperature is 38.1°F, the humidity is 97%, the Dew Point is 37.4°F and our wind chill is 38.1°F.

The wind direction is West between 0.0 MPH and 0.2 MPH.  

The Relative pressure is 29.66, the Absolute pressure is 29.46 and rising with a weather graphic indicating sun.

Visibility is 10.0 Miles / 16.1 Kilometers with overcast.

We received 0.09 inches of rain/snow melt here over the past 24 hours.

With my undying thanks to the Diamond Crystal Salt web site, I now know what temperatures salt is most effective to melt ice.

AT WHAT TEMPERATURE DOES SALT MELT ICE?

At a temperature of 30 degrees (F), one pound of salt (sodium chloride) will melt 46 pounds of ice. But, as the temperature drops, salt's effectiveness slows to the point that when you get down near 10 degrees (F) and below, salt is barely working.

 

Commercially available ice melt materials include salt (sodium chloride), calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride. Each ingredient has its advantages

and disadvantages but salt remains the best choice for use at temperatures above 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-9.4 degrees Celsius).

 

Sustained bitterly cold temperatures are fairly rare for much of the country, so in case that happens to you and all you have is salt to melt ice, what can you do?

Magnesium chloride and calcium chloride remain effective at melting ice even with bitterly cold temperatures.  For instance, magnesium chloride work down

to temperatures of -20 to -25 degrees.

 

The Diamond Crystal® product line offers several ice melt products that are effective at bitterly cold temperatures.  Jiffy Melt® Ice Melt Salt contains

a specially formulated blend of magnesium chloride and sodium chloride for quick-melting action at temperatures of -10 °F / -23 °C.  Flash Melt® Ice and

Snow Melt is the easy choice when temperatures get down to -25 °F / -31 °C as it contains calcium chloride that gives off heat as it dissolves, liquefying

ice.