Physics q - Freezing conditions - where does the water go?!

[zebedee]

Monday night was like a wet blizzard and everything was soaked, massive puddles, just as bad as it got with all the flooding, then it snowed and melted the next day and has stayed pretty much frozen since. So I can't understand why the roads are now largely dry. Surely evaporation will be barely occurring? Does the process of freezing/freeze-thaw release energy in some way that dispels the water? I remember some terracotta wine cooler you could get that all you had to was get it wet and put the bottle in and the process of it evaporating off the terracotta and took warmth out of the bottle and chilled it or something, does the same sort of thing happen in reverse?

I'm glad anyway because I was expecting sheet ice everywhere and it hasn't been too bad really but I am a bit puzzled...

[mrmr96]

Gritters drop salt which melts the ice and then it runs off down the drain?

[HustleRussell]

Ground temperature is rarely the same as air temperature. In the winter, it is warmer under ground than it is at the surface. Drainage works as normal.

[zebedee]

mrmr96 said:

Gritters drop salt which melts the ice and then it runs off down the drain?

I'm talking ungritted roads and everything was utterly, utterly soaked and waterlogged, any grit would have had no chance of being effective if put down before. It just surprises me how in 24 hours it has all gone, despite the snowmelt and further rain but I guess the ground temp does stay higher so there will be an element of evaporation going on.

[HustleRussell]

Evapouration does require some energy, but in the case of roads it is assisted in quite a big way by traffic splashing/spraying it about, and it'll evapourate much faster than a stagnant puddle.