Over the years, in my presentations to schools and groups, I have covered a wide range of weather hazards, from hurricanes to ice jam flooding to tornados. Recently, however, I’ve decided to get a bit more specific, focusing on weather hazards that people living right here in The County are most likely to encounter. I have come up with a five-letter acronym for five key hazards, “key” because these hazards have the capacity to injure or kill.The acronym is “FLHIV”, which conveniently sounds like “five”, since there are five of them!
1) F is for Flash Flooding. The National Weather Service coined the phrase “Turn Around! Don’t Drown!” With flash flooding (no matter what you drive), flowing water only needs to be 1/2 way up your tires to move you right into a raging creek or stream. In addition, you don’t even know if the road is still there if there is muddy water flowing across it. (To see how rapidly a road can be washed out, google “Freeport Washout” (the 3 minute, 40 second clip at the top of the search list).
2) L is for Lightning. You must know the following two things about lightning: If you can hear thunder, you are at that very moment close enough to be struck by lightning. Seek shelter at once, and remain sheltered for 30 minutes after the last thunder has been heard. Lightning can strike up to 12 miles away from the parent thunderstorm. This means lightning could strike in Presque Isle, from a storm in Caribou!
A hard-topped car with windows rolled up is a safe place to seek refuge, but it’s not because of the rubber tires, it’s because you are inside of what is called a Faraday Cage, and it is protecting you. Look it up, it’s cool!
3) H is for Hypothermia, a potentially lethal condition wherein the body’s temperature drops. In winter, you should always assume that for some unforeseen reason you will need to be outside, and bring the appropriate gear for being outside in the weather you are heading into, even if you’re just planning to drive to the next town over. In bitterly cold weather, if you are caught with just light clothing on, death can come in hours. Always have a winter survival kit in your car.
It need not be bitterly cold for a person to become hypothermic! There are warning signs at the trailheads in White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire stating “Many have died from exposure (hypothermia), even in Summer. Turn back now if the weather is bad”. If you are ever with someone who is shivering uncontrollably, and the shivering then stops, the situation has become very serious, and medical attention should be sought at once. If it is not available, there is plenty of information online about the proper method to warm a hypothermic person. Following the proper method is very important. No harm in reading up on it!
4) I is for ice, but it’s a specific type of ice. It is freezing rain. Freezing rain is that clear glaze of ice that coats everything. It only takes a paper-thin layer of freezing rain to cause extremely treacherous driving conditions.
Another way that roads can get glazed with clear ice is when we have fog which freezes on surfaces, including the road. In fact, even just having a warmer, more humid airmass move into our region after a period of very cold weather can lead to the air in contact with the deeply chilled road cooling to its dew point, causing it to condense right on to the road and freeze.
5) V is for visibility and there are two types of restricted visibility situations which can be deadly, whiteouts and dense fog. Whiteout driving should only be embarked upon in a true emergency. I’ve been on U.S. Rt. 1 between Caribou and Presque Isle and I might as well have had a blindfold on. It’s probably happened to you, too!
Well here’s a good tip: You can test for potential whiteouts before you even leave your house. If the snow is very powdery but your house is somewhat sheltered from the wind in general, look at the tops of the trees. If they are moving pretty good, then open-terrain blowing snow leading to possible whiteouts could occur.
The other visibility hazard, which can take place in any season, is dense fog,. With fog it’s always handy to remember this surprising fact: when you are traveling at 60 mph, you are traveling almost a full basketball court every second! So it is very easy to outdrive your headlights. When there is widespread dense fog, travel should be avoided.
These “FLIVE” weather hazards, all with the ability to injure or kill, are the ones you’re most likely to encounter living here in The County. You’ll note that wind is not part of the “FLIVE”. Why? It’s because that while we do indeed have damaging wind events in The County, for example microbursts and the occasional weak tornado, in terms of injuries or fatalities, all five of the “FLIVE” cause more of both up here, in northern Maine. And as for regular snow, I trust we all know how to handle that, slow ‘er down!
Ted Shapiro holds the Broadcast Seal of Approval from both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. An Alexandria, Va. native, he has been chief meteorologist at WAGM-TV since 2006. Email him at tshapiro@wagmtv.com.
