ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: What's On Your Mind?
Q: When I was a child growing up in Roanoke in the late '50s and early '60s, we used to ice skate all winter on the pond in Lakewood Park (corner of Brandon and Brambleton avenues).
I moved away for a while, and moved back to Roanoke in 1982. I had hoped to see my children skating on the same pond. In the entire 14 years I have been back, that pond has not frozen once.
Were winters that much colder back then, or is there some other reason the pond doesn't freeze any more?
A: This answer is for you and those of us who remember those early '60s winters.
For today's youngsters who wish winter were something that somebody else could fix: It really was colder back then. Sometimes.
The proof can be obtained from the National Climatic Data Center's record for the Roanoke airport.
Consider February of '58. The mean temperature was 31.8, or 7.4 degrees below normal.
Most everyone agrees that '58 was a mean winter, but in this sense, the data guys mean 31.8 was the halfway point between the daily high and low temperatures.
Some other cold months from that epoch: In March 1960, the mean temperature was 34, or 12.3 degrees below normal for the month that also had the most snow in Roanoke's recent history; and the following winter when December's mean temperature was 32.4 and January's was 33.2 degrees. Those are five to six degrees below normal.
About now you may be saying, hey, the freezing point's 32. That's a key factor, but other conditions figure into the action, according to National Weather Service experts.
It takes several cold days in a row to freeze a small pond like the one in Lakewood Park. Nights need to dip to 20 degrees or less, and days should reach barely above freezing.
In weather that cold, the pond radiates its natural heat to the sky. The heat loss is faster if there's wind and open, cloudless sky.
Also, long winter nights give us more hours of subfreezing weather and fewer hours of sunlight to warm things up. These differences aren't considered when the mean temperature is calculated.
Once the pond loses enough heat and thick ice forms, the weather could warm up a little, but the ice would stay. Daytime melting can form puddles on the surface, but they'll refreeze at night.
So it's possible you skated on the Lakewood Park pond most of the winter - or some winters, anyway.
That's not to say we haven't had some cold weather in the modern era. January of '82 gave us a mean temperature of 28.7 degrees, or 7.7 degrees below normal for the month. Another cold month was December of '87, when the mean was 29.6 degrees, or 8.7 below normal.
In those two months five years apart, if no others, Lakewood Park should have frozen. Roanoke College physics Professor Robert Hudson, who provided some perspective on this subject, said he's seen people skating there in recent years.
The only thing that may have changed about Lakewood Park would be the trees that surround the pond. Their shade and shelter could help to slow the pond's radiation process, keeping it a bit warmer.
The weather, though, hasn't been the same as the late '50s and early '60s.
We've had some serious cold snaps in the past decade, but, according to the temperature charts, we've seldom had two months in a row that were significantly cold.
Weather, though, is more consistent than our perceptions of winters may be. We remember the cold, fun months of our youth because they weren't blurred by memories of previous winters and events.
With the hectic schedules we keep as adults, the pond could freeze while we weren't looking.
Even when it does freeze, there may be less skating. Not many parents today let their kids run to the park to check out the ice unsupervised.
Parents are being cautious and wise, but some freedom has been lost, too.|
Have a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Call us at 981-3118. Or, e-mail RayR@2Roanoke.Infi.Net. Maybe we can find the answer.
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