Black Friday Black Ice

Be careful out there this morning, folks. After an all-day heavy rain event on Thanksgiving, temperatures plummeted overnight, reaching the low 20s in Central Pennsylvania this morning. Freezing rain and fog was reported in State College, PA as late as 1:30 AM, then high humidity spread a heavy cover of frost over the "black ice" as the winds (nearly calm) refused to dry the roads.

The temperature graph from my house last night shows the temperature dropping below 32 around midnight, while humidity stayed high and winds low.

Several traffic accidents were reported in Centre County this morning by local residents, and parking lots were still ice covered at 8 AM, with drivers spinning their tires and shoppers slipping and sliding. As of this writing, Google News was not picking up any official stories on this topic, nor were on-air cable news and weather channels.

Ironically, once the sun melts the ice and the storm moves off the coast this morning, it's going to be a nice day for shopping. In fact, the weather will be unusually boring today, causing no travel problems in North America outside of the Pacific Northwest.