Jan 21, 2009 10:41 pm US/Central
Look Out! Warm Weather Making Icicles Fall
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Beware of dangerous icicles that can come crashing to the ground in warmer weather.
CBS
A lot of us are enjoying this break from really frigid weather. But believe it or not, there is a down side. Icicles can form, and come crashing to the ground. Warmer weather Thursday may cause icicles that have formed to weaken and fall creating a dangerous situation. CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports on how icicles form and how to prevent them in the future.
At street level beside Chicago's towering buildings, the signs downtown caution us to look out for falling ice, but have looked at your own home and the giant icicles dropping down from your own roof?
Vince Gerasole takes us to his own home in Evanston to show us his own roof icicles.
"I'm gonna try and measure this one for you here, get the tape measure all the way to the top, it's roughly six feet long," Gerasole said.
Just imagine if one of the heavy, frozen spears cracked off and hit you. Imagine the damage they could cause to your gutters when they come tumbling down. And just why do they form in the first place?
"It's a symptom that you're losing heat out of your house," said Green Dream Group Insulation Expert Corbett Lunsford.
Lunsford says the heat melts the snow on the roof causing the icicles to form.
"When the snow melts and then it re-freezes on the eves, it's going to cause damage," Lunsford said.
Lunsford set up a door fan to help track down where heat was escaping my home. With an infrared monitor, he measured where heat was escaping.
"You can see the dark areas are cold and the light areas are warm," Lunsford said.
Next we traveled upstairs to the third floor finished attic space where Lunsford found that cracks in a skylight were allowing warm air to escape to the roof, as well as the area just above a third floor water heater, and a tiny unfinished closet with a few square feet of unfinished ceiling.
"You can see that the speckled area there is an un-insulated section of roof," Lunsford said. "Heat is going to escape and it's going to warm that snow and make those giant icicles."
So what should you do about those pesky icicles? If you have a balcony where you have icicles, and you know nobody is down below, you can try to knock them off yourself. But according to experts, you should do this only if you're in a shorter building. Otherwise, be careful when you are walking past buildings and around your own home – and beware of falling icicles.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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