Originally Posted by
CargoDane
Sigh! No, I don't. I just use the word because that is what is used by English-speaking people, and most people drive or ride their vehicle on asphalt. I'm not a native English-speaker, I use the language as it is used by people. Not all words and terms accurately describes reality.
Perhaps you misunderstand the problem. People in the US are constantly going on about “black ice” that has the magical property of being “invisible” but it is completely visible. People just
think it’s invisible because they want to drive at the same speed as they would on dry pavement. “Gosh, officer, how could I have known that the road is slick? It’s
Black Ice®!”
Weather forecasters here are constantly going on about warning people of Black Ice!® when it is cold enough to freeze water and it is drizzling. It’s dramatic! As if freezing temperature and water falling from the sky somehow results in a new and magical substance. I’ve had this discussion before and have been told that Black Ice® can form at temperatures as high as 40°F (4°C). That violates a whole bunch of physical laws.
Well, the opposite of "black ice" would be "white ice" = ice that is very visibly.
There is no opposite of Black Ice!®. There is no black ice. Ice is colorless like the water that forms it. Ice on plants isn’t called green ice. Ice that might form on a red rose isn’t called red ice. Ice on my white vehicle isn’t any more white than the ice that might form on my wife’s car is blue. It’s just ice...good ol’ plain colorless frozen water.
Originally Posted by
CargoDane
I tried to look up what our term "isslag" would be in English, as it is when supercooled rain falls and freeze instantly when it hits the ground that is below freezing - i.e. the shade, bridges etc. where it most dangerous when it's just around freezing everywhere else, but the shade, bridges etc. just that bit colder.
Turns out it is merely "freezing rain" in English (sort of disappointed by that):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freezing_rain
Sometimes called freezing drizzle or even frizzle around here. It seldom actually rains drops of water during freezing rain events in my experience. Most of the time it is a fog or mist that simple freezes.
They got the first part right. It is certainly overused here, often quite breathlessly.
The term "black ice" in the United States is often incorrectly used to describe any type of ice that forms on roadways, even when standing water on roads turns to ice as the temperature falls below freezing.
But the second part is just either bovine, equine, or Gallus gallus fecal matter depending on what flavor you prefer.
Correctly defined, black ice is formed on relatively dry roads, rendering it invisible to drivers. It occurs when the textures present in all pavements very slightly below the top of the road surface contain water or moisture, thereby presenting a dry surface to tires until that water or moisture freezes and expands; drivers then find they are riding above the road surface on a honeycombed invisible sheet of ice.
Those conditions were be extraordinarily rare if impossible to achieve. Ordinary asphalt pavement used most of the time in the US would never meet those conditions. The asphalt doesn’t have much “texture” below the surface. The asphalt contains rocks but it is a water resistant surface that really can’t hold water.
Tined concrete roads
might have structure below the surface to trap water but the roads are usually made to channel water away from the surface so that hydroplaning is less of a problem
Additionally, on both surfaces, de-icer is used extensively throughout the US (and probably most places where it gets cold in winter) to prevent just this kind of problem. Even if de-icer isn’t used, road traffic creates lots of friction which would melt any “honeycombed [ice] structure” quickly. The car’s weight would be enough to crush it quickly if it even formed.
My issue with the usage of Black Ice!® is the dramatic overuse of it. It’s just ice.