Icicle Dangers

It's winter time and there are icicles hanging from virtually every building in the vicinity. Beware! Icicles can do deadly damage when they fall. Ice is heavy and icicles are pointed. Getting struck in the head or anywhere on the body by a heavy, dagger-like icicle can kill a person and has. A 4-lb. icicle dropped from 15 feet can be deadly.

Deadly

• Icicles form when melting snow hits the eaves of a building and the water refreezes, which creates the icicle. Fortunately, the season during which icicles readily form isn't that long in most areas because if it is too cold, the snow doesn't melt and icicles won't form. If it is too warm, the icicles melt and don't maintain their dagger-like shape and the dangers that entails.

Formation

• When water drops onto an icicle and freezes, heat is released and the hot air rises up the sides of an icicle, explains Martin Short, a physicist at the University of Arizona, in Science Daily. Warm air layers serve as an insulated blanket, which is thin near the top and thick at the bottom. The top of the icicle grows slowly while the tip grows quickly, creating the icicle shape. A constant flow of water over the icicle is required for it to grow in size. Growth is the result of heat diffusion away from the icicle created by running water and the updraft of air that travels over the surface. The updraft occurs because the icicle is usually warmer than the surrounding environment.

Liability

• As a business owner or homeowner, if there are icicles on your property you are responsible if one falls and injures or kills someone. You can see icicles hanging from eaves so you are aware they are there. If you know someone is going to be walking under the hanging icicle, and an icicle falls and injures a person, this makes you liable. These areas should be roped off until the icicle melts or drops or is removed.

Ventilation

• Without proper ventilation in the attic area of a home or building, circumstances become ideal for the formation of icicles. Improving attic installation can minimize or altogether eliminate this problem.