Atmosphere-Ocean

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Freezing precipitation in Canada

R.A. Stuart & G.A. Isaac

To cite this article: R.A. Stuart & G.A. Isaac (1999) Freezing precipitation in Canada, Atmosphere-
Ocean, 37:1, 87-102, DOI: 10.1080/07055900.1999.9649622

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 Freezing Precipitation in Canada
R.A. Stuart
Weather Research House, 77 Glendora Avenue
Willowdale, Ontario M2N 2V9
and
G.A. Isaac
Cloud Physics Research Division
Atmospheric Environment Service
Downsview, Ontario

[Original manuscript received 9 October 1997; in revised form 26 November 1998]

abstract Renewed interest in freezing precipitation processes and their cause have resulted
in a requirement for an updated, detailed climatology of freezing precipitation in Canada.
Previous work in this area was very limited in terms of the period of record and the extent of
the analysis.
In this study national maps were prepared of occurrence frequencies of freezing rain, freez-
ing drizzle and freezing precipitation. Each precipitation type was stratified by month, and
stratified again by either wind direction or time of day. Unstratified results were compared
with previous work and both similarities and differences were noted. An analysis of wind
direction stratification maps for stations around Hudson Bay demonstrated the effect of large
features on the occurrence of freezing precipitation. The detailed climatology of freezing pre-
cipitation in Atlantic Canada shows that production mechanisms are closely linked with local
effects.
The duration of freezing precipitation events is usually 1–2 hours, but durations greater
than 8 hours are not uncommon. Freezing precipitation usually occurs with surface tempera-
tures between 08 and –58C.

résumé Un regain d’intérêt pour les processus de la précipitation verglaçante et de leur

manifestation a donné lieu à la nécessité d’une mise à jour d’une climatologie détaillée de la
précipitation verglaçante au Canada. Des études antérieures, dans ce domaine, sont très limi-
tées lorsqu’on considère la période des archives et l’importance de l’analyse.
Dans cette étude, on a préparé des cartes à l’échelle nationale de la fréquence des cas de
pluie verglaçante, de bruine verglaçante et de précipitation verglaçante. Chaque type de
précipitation a été classé selon certains mois de l’année, et aussi selon la direction du vent ou
l’heure du jour. Les résultats non classés ont été comparés aux études antérieures et on a noté
à la fois des similarités et des différences. Une analyse des cartes classées selon la direction
du vent pour les stations autour de la baie d’Hudson a démontré l’effet de nombreuses cara-

ATMOSPHERE-OCEAN 37 (1) 1999, 87–102 0705-5900/99/0000-0087$1.25/0

© Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
 88 / R.A. Stuart and G.A. Isaac

ctéristiques dans les cas de précipitation verglaçante. La climatologie détaillée de la précipi-

tation verglaçante sur les provinces de l’Atlantique montre que des mécanismes de production
sont étroitement reliées aux effets locaux.
La durée des phénomènes de la précipitation verglaçante est ordinairement d’une à deux
heures, mais des périodes plus grandes que 8 heures sont assez fréquentes. La précipitation
verglaçante se forme d’habitudes sur des surfaces dont les températures se situent entre 08 et
–58C.

1 Introduction
Freezing precipitation occurs when supercooled rain or drizzle drops freeze on con-
tact with some surface. When this surface is a highway, the ice layer produced is
extremely hazardous to road traffic. When the surface is a hydroelectric power line
or its supporting towers, the increased weight of the adhered ice can cause physical
breakage of these lines and structures. Similarly, tree branches overloaded with high
density ice can fall and pose a hazard to power lines and buildings. If the super-
cooled water impacts aircraft flying surfaces, the resulting ice can reduce the lift
capability of wings, reduce aircraft stability and balance and obscure pilot vision
through ice layers on windows. All of these hazards have stimulated large volumes
of research into freezing precipitation in many countries over the past few decades.
It is generally assumed that freezing precipitation occurs when snow or ice falls
through a melting layer in the atmosphere and the resulting liquid drops subse-
quently refreeze upon contact with the ground which has a temperature below 08C.
This classic model of freezing precipitation formation requires the existence of a
melting layer at the top of an inversion layer, and concurrent temperatures at the sur-
face less than 08C. According to this model, if there is no melting layer between pre-
cipitation source zones and the ground, then freezing precipitation cannot occur.
However, Huffman and Norman (1988) and Isaac et al. (1996) have demonstrated
that with many, and perhaps most cases of freezing drizzle, no such inversion layer
is evident. Freezing drizzle drops appear to develop via a coalescence mechanism
without an ice phase in clouds with temperatures everywhere less than 08C. An
apparent coalescence mechanism for freezing precipitation is of great interest both
to researchers concerned with the hazards of freezing precipitation and to cloud
physicists interested in general rain formation mechanisms.
Despite this interest and the hazardous nature of its occurrence, very little recent
work has been done on the climatology of freezing precipitation. Canada, for exam-
ple, is a country with relatively high frequencies of this hazard, yet one must go
back to MacKay and Thompson (1969) to find a published climatology of freezing
precipitation for Canada. This study examined the 10-year period 1957–1966 using
the limited computational resources that existed 30 years ago. Since then the Cana-
dian federal government has produced a wide variety of climatological statistics,
including limited freezing precipitation climatologies, in its Principal Station Analy-
sis series, (Atmospheric Environment Service, 1983–1986), but has not undertaken
a national study similar to that of MacKay and Thompson (1969).
 Freezing Precipitation in Canada / 89

The occurrence of freezing rain and freezing drizzle has been recorded at Atmo-
spheric Environment Service (AES) observing stations for many years, and the most
recent thirty-year (1961–90) archive is now available for analysis. There are 140 sta-
tions at 137 locations with 24 hourly observations per day for at least 10 years in the
1961–90 period. These locations are shown in Fig. 1.
Recent advances in computer technology have enabled climatological analyses to
be much more extensive than previously possible since many of the procedures are
now automated. For example, in their report MacKay and Thompson (1969) provide
only two maps of occurrence frequencies. In the course of the work described here,
many thousands of maps have been produced, including occurrence frequencies and
maps of freezing rain, freezing drizzle and freezing precipitation, which includes
both freezing rain and freezing drizzle. These occurrence frequencies have been
stratified by either time of year, time of day or wind direction, thus providing more
detailed information on these precipitation forms than has previously been available.
This additional information is helpful in our attempt to understand how freezing pre-
cipitation develops and when it is likely to occur.
In this paper, only a brief synopsis of the results of the entire study will be pre-
sented. Researchers interested in a more complete report on this project are referred
to Stuart (1994).

2 Definitions and Procedures

Freezing rain is defined to be composed of liquid water drops of diameter larger
than 0.5 mm which freeze on impact with the ground or other objects. Freezing driz-
zle also freezes on impact with the ground but is composed exclusively of droplets
of diameter less than 0.5 mm (Atmospheric Environment Service, 1977). Freezing
precipitation is a general term which includes either freezing rain or freezing drizzle.
For this study stratifications by precipitation type, month or ten-day period, pre-
cipitation intensity, time of day and wind direction were performed, and the results
for each station plotted on maps. In addition, duration statistics of freezing rain,
freezing drizzle and freezing precipitation (either freezing rain or freezing drizzle)
events were also compiled. For this study an “event” is defined to be a sequence of
consecutive hours of freezing rain/drizzle/precipitation. Once all such events have
been identified, the frequency distribution of event length in hours is calculated.

3 National Results
a Annual Overviews
Maps of freezing rain, freezing drizzle and freezing precipitation for the entire year
are shown in Figs 2–4. A cursory comparison of these figures shows that freezing
drizzle is more often observed than freezing rain virtually everywhere in Canada.
Only in the Maritime Provinces and the St. Lawrence River Valley are the occur-
rence frequencies of freezing rain higher or comparable to those of freezing drizzle.
In eastern Newfoundland, the number of hours in which freezing precipitation is
observed exceeds 87 hours annually, equivalent to a one per cent occurrence fre-
 90 / R.A. Stuart and G.A. Isaac

Fig. 1 Observing station locations.

Fig. 2 Approximate contour locations for annual freezing precipitation hours.

 Freezing Precipitation in Canada / 91

Fig. 3 Approximate contour locations for annual freezing rain hours.

Fig. 4 Approximate contour locations for annual freezing drizzle hours.

 92 / R.A. Stuart and G.A. Isaac

quency. For the remainder of the country much lower values are observed, but from
the maps it appears that freezing precipitation is observed at least 10 hours annually
except in British Columbia and the Yukon. Values greater than 50 hours per year are
observed throughout Newfoundland except for stations on the west coast of the
island, along the St. Lawrence-Ottawa River Valleys and in the Maritime Provinces.
Similar values are also seen in isolation at Cape Parry on the Beaufort Sea and at
Churchill on the west coast of Hudson Bay.
Not surprisingly, the results for freezing precipitation are quite similar to those
reported by MacKay and Thompson (1969). The only major difference occurs in
western Labrador, where they identified a large area as having more than 50 hours of
freezing precipitation, which is not supported in the 30-year analysis. Other, less
significant variations are related to the limited period of record of 10 years in the
earlier study. Overall, there are significant differences between the two studies
which point out the importance of using a long period of record for relatively rare
occurrences such as freezing precipitation.

b Variation by Time of Year

Monthly maps of freezing precipitation show that Canada is never completely free
of this hazard, although in some months, its geographical extent is much larger than
in others. In the summer months of June, July and August, freezing precipitation is
restricted to the far north. Percentage occurrence values greater than 0.1% are
observed only at Alert, Resolute and a few stations along the Beaufort Sea, and with
the exception of Resolute in June, in no instance is the frequency of occurrence
greater than 1.0%. Freezing drizzle is most often observed; freezing rain in these
months is very rare.
In the autumn months of September, October and November, the domain of freez-
ing precipitation extends southward to eventually cover most of the country. In Sep-
tember, freezing precipitation is observed throughout the western Arctic and to the
west of Hudson Bay with the highest rates of occurrence remaining on the islands in
the Arctic Ocean. In October (Fig. 5), freezing precipitation is observed in the north-
ern half of all western provinces, as well as Quebec and Ontario. The highest rates
of occurrence however, remain north of the coast of North America. By November,
temperatures north of 708N are too cold for freezing precipitation to exist. Now,
national maximum occurrence values are found in northern Manitoba, James Bay
and Labrador for freezing drizzle and the Ottawa Valley area for freezing rain.
Freezing precipitation occurrence in the winter months of December, January and
February shows many of the characteristics of the annual map (Fig. 4). In western
Canada and the Arctic, values are quite small because of very low temperatures. The
highest occurrence rates for both freezing rain and freezing drizzle are along the St.
Lawrence River, the Maritime Provinces and eastern Newfoundland. In January (Fig.
6), most stations in southern Ontario and the Ottawa and St. Lawrence River Valley
areas of Quebec observe freezing precipitation 1–2% of the time, while for some sta-
tions in eastern Newfoundland, occurrence frequencies exceed 3%.
 Freezing Precipitation in Canada / 93

Fig. 5 Occurrence frequencies of freezing precipitation in October.

Fig. 6 Occurrence frequencies of freezing precipitation in January.

 94 / R.A. Stuart and G.A. Isaac

Fig. 7 Occurrence frequencies of freezing precipitation in April.

March is the month with the highest rates of occurrence of freezing precipitation
in Canada (5.2% or 39 hours in St. John’s Newfoundland). By April (Fig. 7), the high
values in Ontario and Quebec have disappeared with the warmer weather, and by
May, the highest rates of occurrence are again observed in the Northwest Territories.

c Variation by Wind Direction

Wind direction is strongly correlated with the occurrence frequencies of freezing
precipitation. The details of the correlation depend on the station and time of year,
and may be clear through a comparison of Figs 8 and 9. As noted in Section 3b, Res-
olute has the highest frequency of occurrence of freezing precipitation in June of
any station surveyed. Figure 8 shows the occurrence of freezing drizzle for this sta-
tion in June, and the favoured wind direction for freezing drizzle is south through
west. Figure 9 shows the results of a similar analysis for Montreal in January, and
for this station and time of year, the least favoured direction is south through west.
The relationship between wind direction and freezing rain is often not the same as
its relationship with freezing drizzle as can be seen in Fig. 10. In St. John’s in
March, southeasterly winds are most likely to bring freezing rain, but freezing driz-
zle is most likely to occur with northeast and east winds. Further study is required to
determine the cause of this difference.
One of the most interesting findings of this study is connected with the apparent
role played by Hudson Bay in the development of freezing rain and freezing drizzle.
 Freezing Precipitation in Canada / 95

Fig. 8 Occurrence frequencies of freezing drizzle for Resolute in June.

Fig. 9 Occurrence frequencies of freezing drizzle for Montreal in January.

 96 / R.A. Stuart and G.A. Isaac

Fig. 10 Occurrence frequencies of freezing rain and freezing drizzle by wind direction for St. John’s in
March.

Despite its remote location, the coast of Hudson Bay has a number of observing sta-
tions including Inukjuak and Kuujjuarapik on the east coast, Churchill, Rankin Inlet
and Baker Lake on the west coast and Coral Harbour to the north.
In Fig. 11, the percent occurrence of freezing rain by wind direction in May is
shown in a similar format to that of Fig. 8 for the six observing stations around Hud-
son Bay. The solid bars in each chart indicate the wind directions for air flows off
Hudson Bay towards the station. With the exception of Inukjuac, these wind direc-
tions generally have a higher incidence of freezing rain than other wind directions.
For Inukjuac, the opposite conclusion appears to be valid – higher frequencies of
freezing rain are associated with wind flows from the land to Hudson Bay.
Figure 12 is similar to Fig. 11 but the statistics refer to freezing drizzle in June.
Again, wind flows off Hudson Bay appear to have higher incidences of freezing pre-
cipitation, and again Inukjuac is the exception to the rule.
These very interesting results suggest a series of questions that may lead to an
increased understanding of the processes of freezing precipitation. The apparent role
of Hudson Bay is unclear since it remains covered with sea-ice until July (Markham,
1988). Any effect of the water would have to be felt through intervening sea-ice and
 Freezing Precipitation in Canada / 97

Fig. 11 Freezing rain occurrence for six stations around Hudson Bay in May.

Fig. 12 Freezing drizzle occurrence for six stations around Hudson Bay in June.
 98 / R.A. Stuart and G.A. Isaac

any snow layers. Perhaps a stable boundary layer promotes long-lived stratiform
clouds which create conditions favourable for large droplet formation. The addi-
tional lift caused by the air moving from the flat Bay surface over local terrain could
promote large droplet formation.
A complete analysis of the occurrence of freezing precipitation by wind direction
for the stations surveyed in this study is a large undertaking and well beyond the
scope of this work. Even a brief review of the maps however, raises a large number
of questions that should be followed up in subsequent work.

d Duration Statistics
Duration statistics provide information on the number of hours that freezing rain and
freezing drizzle, once observed, may be expected to continue. Such information is of
great use in anticipating the re-opening of transportation facilities that have been
closed by this hazard. The duration of any freezing precipitation event will be some-
what dependent on the frequency of occurrence of freezing precipitation, but in gen-
eral, the time correlation is much higher than may be expected with randomly
occurring events.
Any interpretation of duration statistics must recognize that the database from
which the statistics are derived is one of hourly observations. For our analysis, it is
assumed that two consecutive observations of freezing precipitation imply a contin-
uation of the event for 120 minutes. In practice, the initiation/cessation of a freez-
ing precipitation event requires weather observers in Canada to issue a special, off-
the-hour observation, (Atmospheric Environment Service, 1977) but unfortunately
these special observations are not included in the national long-term climate
archives. Even “Specials” cannot capture all of the temporal detail of freezing pre-
cipitation initiation/cessation since the observer is granted a grace period of 15 min-
utes following such an initiation/cessation before the issuance of a Special is
mandatory.
Maps of duration statistics have been produced, but contain little useful informa-
tion because there is little geographical structure at the scale of the available observ-
ing stations. Understandable differences by time of year do exist however, and these
are now briefly described.
In September and October median durations are limited to 1–2 hours and there is
little geographical structure. Individual stations in the north have higher median val-
ues, particularly along the Mackenzie River and in the Yukon.
November median duration values are somewhat higher with large areas across
Canada with values equal to two hours. Very few stations, however, have median
durations greater than two hours. In December, western Canada duration values
seem to be reduced, while throughout most of eastern Canada, median values of two
hours continue to be common.
Higher values of median duration are observed in the lower British Columbia
mainland and Vancouver Island in January, while median values through the remain-
der of western Canada are either one or two hours. In eastern Canada, median values
 Freezing Precipitation in Canada / 99

Fig. 13 Hours of freezing precipitation in Atlantic Canada in March.

of two hours are observed at most stations, with higher values around Hudson Bay
and at a small number of isolated stations in the Arctic.
February duration values are similar to the values for January through most of
southern Canada. No clear pattern exists in the north with some stations showing an
increase over the previous month and other stations showing a decrease.
In March, values in eastern Canada have increased to three hours at many loca-
tions. Elsewhere there is no apparent significant change.

4 Freezing Precipitation in Atlantic Canada

Figure 13 shows the station climatology for March of freezing precipitation in
Atlantic Canada, which has some of the highest occurrence frequencies in the world.
As shown in Section 3, national maps in the winter and spring months show very
high maxima in these areas, but national maps are unable to show the strong local
variation in freezing precipitation occurrence that exists in this region. Eastern
coastlines have much higher rates of freezing precipitation, as is evident in a com-
parison of St. John’s (5.25%) and Stephenville (0.55%) which show an order of
magnitude difference. A comparison of freezing rain and freezing drizzle rates of
occurrence by wind direction for these stations is shown in Figs 10 and 14.
In St. John’s, freezing rain occurs when the surface winds are blowing from the
Atlantic, with the largest frequency occurring with southeast winds. Freezing drizzle
 100 / R.A. Stuart and G.A. Isaac

Fig. 14 Occurrence frequencies of freezing rain and freezing drizzle by wind direction for Stephenville
in March.

is also favoured with on-shore winds but the highest frequencies are north and
northeast winds. In Stephenville, there is no favoured wind direction for freezing
rain; freezing drizzle most often occurs with southwesterly winds. It should be noted
that for Stephenville, no wind direction has an occurrence rate of freezing precipita-
tion greater than 1%.
When it is noted that St. John’s and Stephenville are separated by a distance much
less than the synoptic length scale, it becomes apparent that freezing rain and freez-
ing drizzle production mechanisms depend greatly on mesoscale influences and
proximity to the ocean. In March when the frequencies are highest, the icepack has
moved southward to a position near St. John’s. Consequently, north and northeast
flows would approach from ice-covered waters – a similar situation to that described
in Section 3c for Hudson Bay. More detailed investigations will be required to
understand these mechanisms more completely.
The distribution of event length for freezing drizzle for St. John’s in March is
shown in Fig. 15. The longest period of consecutive hours of freezing drizzle at this
station was 35 hours, while 50 percentile (i.e., the median value) and 90 percentile
sequence lengths were 2 and 9 hours respectively. The 50 (90) percentile value is
defined to be the lowest time interval such that 50 (90) percent of all sequences have
 Freezing Precipitation in Canada / 101

Fig. 15 Frequency of occurrence of sequence length of freezing drizzle for St. John’s in March.

a duration which is either less than or equal to this value. These statistics may be
interpreted to mean that: (1) one-half of the freezing drizzle events had a duration of
one or two hours, and (2) 90% of all freezing drizzle events had a duration of 9
hours or less for this station and time of year, and less than 90% of all events had a
duration of 8 hours or less. It is again emphasized that these values are not at all typ-
ical for other stations and times of year.

5 Conclusions
An updated climatology of freezing precipitation for Canada has been completed.
Comparisons with the previous climatology of MacKay and Thompson (1969) dem-
onstrated the importance of longer periods of record for the analysis of weather ele-
ments that have a low frequency of occurrence. While the earlier work, which is
based on a 10-year database of observations, captured many of the gross features of
1961–1990 frequency of occurrence maps, smaller scale features and single station
analyses were often quite different.
Freezing precipitation occurs in all seasons somewhere in Canada. In summer,
occurrences are limited to the far north, while in colder seasons, freezing precipita-
tion occurs in every region of the country except the Pacific coast (where occur-
 102 / R.A. Stuart and G.A. Isaac

rences in any season are very rare) and the far north, where it is now too cold for
freezing precipitation to occur. Highest frequencies of occurrence are observed in
Atlantic Canada in March and April.
A closer examination of freezing precipitation in Atlantic Canada showed high
variability over mesoscale distances and a strong dependence on wind direction.
This suggests that production mechanisms are closely tied to local effects, which
would need to be included in any in-depth studies of these production mechanisms.
A comparison with a U.S. freezing precipitation climatology (Vilcans and Brunham,
1989) shows that St. John’s Newfoundland has the highest occurrence frequency of
freezing precipitation in North America.
It is recommended that a global climatology of freezing precipitation be prepared.
Such a climatology would be useful because of the hazards associated with these
phenomena. It would also assist ongoing research in determining the significant
variables affecting freezing precipitation formation.

Acknowledgments
This project was funded by the Canadian Forces Weather Service of the Department
of National Defence and the Atmospheric Environment Service of Environment
Canada, whose support is gratefully recognized. The authors also acknowledge with
gratitude the efforts of David Kellow of the University of Waterloo, who, during his
term as a co-op student for the Cloud Physics Division, assisted in the production of
all maps generated during the course of this work.

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