#MEwx Happy Thanksgiving Day, cold, wet, snowy/sleety and the best way to melt ice

Good Morning Augusta

We're still under the winter weather advisory until noon today as posted yesterday.

This morning we have freezing rain likely with rain. Areas of fog later this morning. Patchy fog this afternoon with ice accumulation of up to a tenth of an inch. Highs will reach into the upper 30s with light and variable winds.

Tonight we'll have cloudy skies with rain showers likely during evening hours. Areas of fog with lows in the upper 30s. Winds will be light and variable. Chance of rain

The readings from my weather instruments are:

Our outdoor temperature is 32.0°F, the humidity is 99% the Dew point is 31.8°F and a wind chill of 32.0°F.

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

The Relative pressure is 30.13, the Absolute pressure is 29.13 and falling with a weather graphic indicating snow/rain.

If you want to see real-time instrument readings from my personal weather station click Here. That will take you directly to my weather station.

Visibility is 10.0 miles /16.1 kilometers with overcast and freezing rain possible.

The UV rating is  0 out of 16, The moon is 86.9% illuminated, the moon phase is     waxing Gibbous, Sunrise is 6:49 am↑ 119° Southeast, Sunset is 4:03 pm↑ 241° Southwest, Moonrise is 2:33 pm↑ 82° East, Moonset is 2:51 am↑ 275° West and we'll have 9 hours 14 minutes of daylight today.

We received 0.04 inches of measurable rain, the snow is roughly an inch deep here over the past 24 hours.

Since it's "that time of year" (I'm talking about ice/snow, not Santa) you might like to review the following data about rock salt and "ice melt" products.

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