Atmospheric icing

Atmospheric icing occurs in the atmosphere when water droplets suspended in air freeze on objects they come in contact with. It is not the same as freezing rain, which is caused directly by precipitation.

Atmospheric icing occurs on aircraft, towers, wind turbines, boats, oil rigs, and trees. Unmanned aircraft are particularly sensitive to icing. In cold climates, particularly those at higher elevations, atmospheric icing is common in winter as elevated terrain interacts with supercooled clouds that can cause icing on contact. Ice loads are a major cause of catastrophic failures of overhead electrical power lines, as power lines can break under the weight of accumulated ice. Therefore, estimation of maximum potential ice load is crucial in the structural design of power line systems to withstand ice loads, and this can be done with numerical icing models and examples that include meteorological data.