I park in my driveway, which gets the first morning sun and goes rapidly into shade. There was a layer of snow/ice on my car roof and what must have happened is that the morning sun heated up the car roof just enough so that this car-roof shaped 1-2" thick layer of ice slid forward, down onto my windshield. It stopped at the bottom of the windshield, of course, and frozen again when the sun moved. So I came out around noon to find a shield shaped layer of ice covering my windshield and sticking up at the top. It was easy to break the ice by hitting the sticking up part - it all cracked and slid down and I just picked up the big hunks and threw them into the yard. But it sure took me aback for a moment, before I figured out how I got a 1-2 inch layer of ice completely covering my windshield - and no ice anywhere else on the car - when we hadn't had any preciptation since Thursday.

By Sunny on Saturday, February 17, 2007 - 04:53 pm:

You should consider yourself lucky that the ice didn't fall down onto your windshield while driving or fly off and hit a car behind you. There have been incidents where the snow and/or ice fly off a moving vehicle and cause accidents or other damage.

Pennsylvania is now enforcing the law that states all vehicles be cleared of snow and ice:
KYW
“There’s a new law that was enacted in May that basically is reminding motorists that they could face severe fines if snow or ice that is lodged on their vehicle would fall from their vehicle and cause injury or death to either another motorist or a pedestrian.”

I spent the better part of Thursday clearing the ice off the roof of my van, so I know what a pain in the neck it is, but I also know that it's better to be safe than sorry!

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, February 17, 2007 - 06:44 pm:

Sunny, I did clear my roof after the first storm, and I'd swear it was clear when I got into it yesterday morning and at the end of the day yesterday. I'm very aware of the danger, and don't want snow or anything blowing off my roof to the cars behind me (I've experienced that from other drivers) or off the hood into the windshield. The more I think about it, the more I can't really understand what happened.