the.com/blackice
The road wearing camouflage, invisible until your car starts doing its own choreography.
means A thin, transparent layer of ice on a road or surface that is nearly invisible because you can see the dark pavement through it, making it especially treacherous.
from A plain compound of "black" and "ice" — though the ice itself is clear, it's called black because it takes on the dark color of the asphalt beneath, so drivers see road where there is actually a glaze of frozen water. The term spread through the 20th century alongside car culture and winter driving warnings; the same logic gives us "black water" and "black frost," where "black" signals something dark, hidden, or sinister rather than literally colored.
- transparent
- Thin and clear, it shows the dark pavement beneath
- deadliest road
- Causes thousands of crashes by hiding in plain sight
- bridges first
- Forms there earliest, chilled from above and below
- no traction
- Tires grip it about as well as wet glass
- sneaky temp
- Can form even when air sits above freezing
black ice on i-95 — caused 99-car pileup in pennsylvania on february 14, 2007