<p>Different from the air temperature, the wire temperature is not only affected by the meteorological conditions, but also can directly reflect some important characteristics of the icing process, which is the basis for judging the dry and wet growth of ice accretion. Based on the comprehensive observations to air temperature (<i>T</i>_a), wire temperature measured directly (<i>T</i>_wd) and by infrared radiation (<i>T</i>_wi) over the winters from 2019 to 2021 in the southwestern mountainous areas of China, this study combines the three-types temperature under different weather conditions to reveal the response characteristics of wire temperature to the icing processes. The results show that solar shortwave radiation has the most significant impact on wire temperature, but exhibits different characteristics under diverse weather conditions. Among them, <i>T</i>_wd is significantly higher than <i>T</i>_a during the daytime of sunny days, while during the nighttime of rainy/foggy days, the values of these two temperatures are closest. Compare to <i>T</i>_a, <i>T</i>_wd and <i>T</i>_wi can effectively reveal that the most prominent disaster characteristics of ice accretion. <i>T</i>_wd and <i>T</i>_wi exhibited a strong positive correlation during the icing process, particularly at night. An ice weight growth rate exceeding 15&#xa0;g/h occurred mainly when <i>T</i>_wd or <i>T</i>_wi ranged from − 2.5&#xa0;°C to 0&#xa0;°C. <i>T</i>_wd is greater than 0&#xa0;°C during the daytime can well interpret the occurrence of ice shedding when <i>T</i>_a is less than 0&#xa0;°C. There is the wet growth process of ice accretion with a <i>T</i>_wi of 0&#xa0;°C during the daytime, while it is dominated by the dry growth process of ice accretion with <i>T</i>_wi below 0&#xa0;°C during the nighttime. The energy balance method can be applied to estimate the wire temperature, especially during the icing processes when the wire temperature is less than 0 ℃.</p>