The Perils of Black Ice
No, not the Lorene Cary memoir, which Seattlest found to be a moving and well-written book. We're talking about the black ice that our local traffic reporters have us convinced is a sinister and rare weather condition. When their voices go up in pitch with "reports of black ice on the roadways" we quiver at the vision of our number 15 bus skidding down Mercer Street, helpless at the mercy of this dark, invisible force.
Praise be to KOMO TV's Steve Pool and his Ask Steve column. Here we learned that black ice is...ice. Ice on the road. Because it's thin and clear and on blacktop, it looks black. Kind of like how the ice cubes in your Diet Coke look caramel-colored.
Black or white or transparent, driving on ice is dangerous. Here are some winter driving tips. One can spot black ice (and frantically call the local news to report it) because it tends to look darker than the rest of the roadway. Obviously it's more of a threat at night. Slow down.
Don't get us started on the weather-reporting hysteria endemic to Seattle...or, at least, let us recover from this black ice revelation before we go any further.
