Rock Salt

The last two winters have included very cold snaps across North America and Northern Europe. The sudden snowfalls and sub freezing temperatures have have put an increased burden on local authorities to clean away the ice and snow from roads and pavements. This has caused and increase in the use of rock salt, above the normal, and have left many authorities short of rock salt or they have run out completely. This has resulted in businesses and people unable to keep moving.

Salt, in its different forms is the most common chemical used for de-icing roads across the Northern Hemisphere. Whether it is mined rock salt or salt evaporated from sea water the effect is the same, the salt lowers the freezing point of water. When salt is applied to ice on the road it dissolves into the liquid water in the ice and lowers its freezing point in the process. Water freezes at 32ºF or 0ºC but a 10% salt solution freezes at 20ºF or -6ºC.

The winter of 2010/2011 caused an increase in demand across the northern hemisphere and some authorities were caught short and ran out of salt. Because most rock salt is imported and transported by sea, or moved by truck to storage points, then there is a time delay involved. Normally this is accounted for by building up stock over the summer and autumn but on this occasion the stocks were not sufficient and roads were left untreated.

With global warming and changing weather patterns severe winter weather is forecast to become more frequent in the years ahead. For this reason there is going to be an increasing demand for salt to keep the roads, highways and businesses moving.

Rock salt has other names, regional names such as Himalayan Rock Salt, names for salt from different sources such as White Rock Salt but they all have the same chemical formula, NaCl.

Find out where to buy rock salt and who the rock salt suppliers are by visiting our other pages and also go here? for more information.

Treating roads, highways, pavements, sidewalks, paths and car parks with de-icing salt is very practical and helps to ensure the safety of pedestrians and drivers and helps to keep towns, cities states and countries from shutting down during very cold weather.

Global warming has contributed to the recent cold winters in the Northern Hemisphere according to some scientists and this is their line of argument. Global warming has melted the Arctic’s floating ice. The receding and diminishing surface ice allows the sun’s rays to be absorbed by the dark blue sea instead of being reflected back into space by the reflective floating ice. This massive heat source in the warmer sea then creates high pressure systems that brings cold polar air to North America and Europe.

This mechanism increases the chances that future winters in Europe and North America will have freezing cold snaps or even longer periods. True or false, it seems counter intuitive that global warming is causing freezing winters but that appears to be the case.

This might only be a theory but the signs are obvious to all who live in the affected areas so to keep people, transport, industry and businesses moving then having stocks of rock salt is important for all authorities, councils and even governments.