As we know, the cars make ruts on the road, and the ruts are first to clear. The cleared pavement is dark, and absorbs more heat from the sun. So roads are the first ones to be clear of ice. You can estimate how busy the road is based on how soon it's ice free. On this same intersection, the street looks pretty much the same as in November. I have a shot taken in January, and you'll see it's almost completely covered ice.
Now the ruts are clear again:
A snowy side street |
A couple of inches of ice on the sides. |
Once there is ice-free pavement, the sun heats the surface so the melting will spread out fast, if the melt water runs off the bikeway. If it doesn't, the water will freeze during the night and the progress will be much slower.
On the other hand, if you've noticed, there's a lot of trees blocking the sun here. So on bikeways going trough forests, it looks like this:
There will be winter on this bikeway for a while. |
These bikeways are about the same as they were in November. The snow banks are higher, but the conditions for cycling are about the same. When the days will get warmer, the top of the ice will melt and then freeze during the night. So the bikeways will be more slippery and full of slush and frozen tyretracks, and the worst biking conditions of the year are ahead.
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