When Snow Becomes Ice

We originally got this snow on Dec 15. Because of the steadily sub 25 degree weather for three weeks straight, the snow has become hard, and ice has formed on the bottom of these huge sheets on our roof. The gutters were filled with huge ice blocks that would take forever to melt. Since the sheets were connected to the ice blocks, I thought it would be best to break the connection between them, bust up the ice blocks in the gutters, and clean out the gutters. Since it got up to 33 degrees today, I thought I needed to make sure the water would be able to make it into my yard the correct way.

And three hours later: