The Influence of Freezing Drizzle on Wire Icing during Freezing Fog Events

Both direct and indirect effects of freezing drizzle on ice accretion were analyzed for ten freezing drizzle events during a comprehensive ice thickness, fog, and precipitation observation campaign carried out during the winter of 2008 and 2009 at Enshi Radar Station （30°17′N, 109°16′E）, Hubei Province, China. The growth rate of ice thickness was 0.85 mm h-1 during the freezing drizzle period, while the rate was only 0：4 mm h-1 without sleet and freezing drizzle. The rain intensity, liquid water content （LWC）, and diameter of freezing drizzle stayed at low values. The development of microphysical properties of fog was suppressed in the freezing drizzle period. A threshold diameter （Dc） was proposed to estimate the influence of freezing drizzle on different size ranges of fog droplets. Fog droplets with a diameter less than Dc would be affected slightly by freezing drizzle, while larger fog droplets would be affected significantly. Dc had a correlation with the average rain intensity, with a correlation coefficient of 0.78. The relationships among the microphysical properties of fog droplets were all positive when the effect of freezing drizzle was weak, while they became poor positive correlations, or even negative correlations during freezing drizzle period. The direct contribution of freezing drizzle to ice thickness was about 14.5%. Considering both the direct and indirect effects, we suggest that freezing drizzle could act as a ＂catalyst＂ causing serious icing conditions.