As North Texas begins to once again thaw out from a massive freeze, we're reminded of the dangers that come with melting sheets of ice.
A viewer video shared in 2013 (embedded below) served then as a stark reminder to beware of falling ice - and it is relevant again today as temperatures climb above freezing and the ice begins to melt.
As temperatures warm up, heavy sheets of ice can be dislodged and slide off of rooftops. A photo shared by Loro in Old East Dallas shows ice sheets slowly sliding off the restaurant's metal roof -- the ice was moving so slowly that icicles formed on the tips of the sheets.
In many cases, the ice falls harmlessly onto the ground below. In other cases, such as with taller buildings, the ice can suddenly slide off the roof and come crashing down onto cars and sidewalks, endangering those below.
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To keep yourself and your car safe, avoid parking under any awning or sloped roof where ice could slide and fall. Also, use caution when walking near buildings, tall trees, or anywhere where ice may have been built up overhead.
In the 2013 video from Nicole Jaime (embedded below), heavy sheets of ice crashed down on a Jaguar, a Corvette and a number of other cars, smashing glass and collapsing the roofs on vehicles outside of the Shops at Legacy in Plano.
In 2011, ahead of Super Bowl XLV, Severin Sampson was badly injured when ice and snow fell onto him from 200 feet, atop Cowboys Stadium. The weight of the ice fractured his skull, ruptured his eardrum and left him with a brain injury. In an exclusive interview with NBC 5 in 2012, Sampson said he saw "a big giant boulder and a big sheet of ice behind the boulder" when he looked up -- and that it was falling too fast for him to get out of the way. In all, six people were injured by falling ice at the stadium in 2011.
