So far here we've got about 1-1/2 inches of very dry powder. Good sledding snow, or a good layer over a base on the slopes if this were the mountains. Still coming down though and will probably double by morning.
They closed schools here b/c they expected the storm in much earlier today and didn't want to have to mess with early releases (all our busses run 2 routes / day here), but the snow didn't come in until right around dinnertime. They've already closed for tomorrow, too, since the storm came in later and won't leave 'til later.
I'll probably get to work late tomorrow, but I expect my 6pm class at Peace will still be on with no problem.
They've showed some traffic cams on the 11 o'clock news and there's no one out there at all. Not even the plow trucks :-\
the last time I saw 1.5 inches of dry powder I was up for 4 days. ::)
That snow must have addled your brains or sent you back in time, Brant.
Quote from: MetalDog on January 28, 2014, 11:23:00 PM
That snow must have addled your brains or sent you back in time, Brant.
Whatever do you mean, oh Dog of Metal? ;)
IMHO most of you are suffering from frostbite.
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 28, 2014, 11:34:12 PM
Quote from: MetalDog on January 28, 2014, 11:23:00 PM
That snow must have addled your brains or sent you back in time, Brant.
Whatever do you mean, oh Dog of Metal? ;)
It's good to be the mod :)
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 28, 2014, 11:17:45 PM
So far here we've got about 1-1/2 inches of very dry powder. Good sledding snow, or a good layer over a base on the slopes if this were the mountains. Still coming down though and will probably double by morning.
That's so cute. :P
Bitch please, we've gotten about 2" of snow every other day since mid November. Plus freezing rain storms so the snow banks are nicely layered death traps if you walk on them. >:(
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 28, 2014, 11:17:45 PM
So far here we've got about 1-1/2 inches of very dry powder. Good sledding snow, or a good layer over a base on the slopes if this were the mountains. Still coming down though and will probably double by morning.
They closed schools here b/c they expected the storm in much earlier today and didn't want to have to mess with early releases (all our busses run 2 routes / day here), but the snow didn't come in until right around dinnertime. They've already closed for tomorrow, too, since the storm came in later and won't leave 'til later.
I'll probably get to work late tomorrow, but I expect my 6pm class at Peace will still be on with no problem.
They've showed some traffic cams on the 11 o'clock news and there's no one out there at all. Not even the plow trucks :-\
Ahh I miss the days of living in NC when the mere mention of snow would shut the place down for a day or two.
Also I +1 Barthheart's sentiment.
I didn't say it was the worst of the worst. Just that it's what we got.
I lived through the White Hurricane of 2000. We got 19 or so inches of snow in about 13 hours - in Columbia, SC. Raleigh set a record that year by about 10 inches (they got 27 inches or so in a 24-hr period and at one point had over 3 inches come down in 1 hour).
It's nowhere near what you Canadiastanians are used to, but there's a reason we live below the 45th parallel! ;)
(and don't forget I lived in Germany for 8-1/2 years, too, including a few in the Alps. I've done my snow time ;D)
My sister lives in Roswell GA , outside Atlanta, and it took her 7 plus hours to drive the 7 miles home from work last night.
Quote from: Gusington on January 29, 2014, 08:10:16 AM
My sister lives in Roswell GA , outside Atlanta, and it took her 7 plus hours to drive the 7 miles home from work last night.
Well... that doesn't make yer sister sound too bright... why didn't she just dump the car and walk... could have been home in an hour? ???
this why:
http://www.businessinsider.com/atlanta-traffic-jam-pictures-2014-1
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on January 29, 2014, 08:44:03 AM
this why:
http://www.businessinsider.com/atlanta-traffic-jam-pictures-2014-1
hahahahahaha!
The University has (so far) cancelled 2 days of classes. At most, there is some ice on the bridges. Roads are clear and dry. But nothing says "Panic!!" like snow in Alabama.
Having grown up with a lot of snow - it would be funny if it was not so sad.
(https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1/1622628_10104010874103065_769933110_n.jpg)
My inlaws have about 110" already this season, 22"+ in the last week. They're in Michigan west of Cadillac.
Quote from: OJsDad on January 29, 2014, 11:58:57 AM
My inlaws have about 110" already this season, 22"+ in the last week.
Star's had similar numbers.
Oops, sorry. Just realized we were still talking about snow.
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on January 29, 2014, 08:44:03 AM
this why:
http://www.businessinsider.com/atlanta-traffic-jam-pictures-2014-1
WTF is wrong with those places? 1-2 inches?!?
Quote from: Staggerwing on January 29, 2014, 12:57:33 PM
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on January 29, 2014, 08:44:03 AM
this why:
http://www.businessinsider.com/atlanta-traffic-jam-pictures-2014-1
WTF is wrong with those places? 1-2 inches?!?
No infrastructure for it. No preparation by local authorities, no salting, no snow plows. A city already with major traffic problems in ideal conditions, and a mass release of workers around 1:00pm right into the teeth of the heaviest snowfall.
I was only out in it because I was trying to make a funeral, and pretty much all we heard locally was dismissing the event as a potential "light dusting". Even when they did start to dispatch salt trucks it came too late, and didn't target the side streets, which jammed people trying to exit the interstates where the less traveled roads became iced over in minutes.
I got lucky, I turned my car around at about 10:30am after seeing portions of I-85 were being closed, and passed through downtown while it was light. I still wasn't able to make it home, the way our roads are here, the streets were glass by the time I hit Kennesaw. Many areas here are on an incline, and trying to drive up the hill to my house became impossible literally as we were making the ascent. We just don't have the vehicles or enough people that have experienced these conditions. I've lived and driven in Colorado and Missouri, but that didn't make my wheels have any better traction yesterday.
Local authorities were little help either. About 30 other cars were stalled out where I was, and the police when called ordered us to stay with our vehicles, at the same time telling us no help was coming. Nothing was done to close the hill, or redirect traffic, so more and more kept piling up. The only advice the police had was that if our vehicles were abandoned, they'd be impounded and we would be given a stiff fine.
So, we all got together and started pushing. We got about 20 cars up into a nearby Costco parking lot. Of course our ordeal was compounded by people coming down the hill the other way, leaving their homes for reasons I can't fathom. They of course came down sliding, almost hitting the dozen or so of us that were trying to push the vehicles off. I saw at least five cars wreck, one almost flipped because it spun out and the SUV behind it went right into the side. I was with my wife, and she has fybro and the conditions were taking a toll on her, so when we got our car off I gave up with the good Samaritan brigade and we treked up the hill to our home. We had a lot of friends and coworkers that weren't so lucky and spent most of the night in their cars.
Glad you came through OK. Sounds like it was a mix of a bunch of really bad decisions. The thing that gets me is that *everyone* knew the storm was coming; it didn't sneak up on anybody. Hard to believe the city was *that* unprepared.
I can only imagine what would happen if Miami got 2 inches of snow.
There was about a quarter of an inch of snow while I was in training at Fort Polk, Louisiana and they closed the whole base down. People down there just didn't know how to deal with it.
Quote from: Greybriar on January 29, 2014, 03:10:32 PMPeople down there just didn't know how to deal with it.
There's a difference between not knowing how to deal with things and lacking the equipment to deal with it. If you're Ft Polk / Leesville, are you *ever* going to buy a snow plow or a salt truck instead of an extra fire engine? Snow is so rare that investing in snow equipment is cost prohibitive for the once a decade it happens.
Atlanta, though, gets snow / ice often enough that they should've brined / sanded the roads well in advance. Again, this storm didn't sneak up on anyone - the whole flipping country knew it was coming. Hell, we cancelled school here the day before in case it came in early b/c they wouldn't have the buses to get everyone home if they released early.
As to the drivers not knowing how to drive in crappy weather, it's true that they don't deal with it well. But *everywhere* I've lived / driven, the very first storm of the year, *everyone* drives like shit. It happened for 4 years in Columbus - the first time it snowed, there were 48 accidents during the morning commute. Then everyone remembers what they're doing, pulls their heads out of their asses, and figures it out.
The problem down here is that there's rarely more than one big snowstorm, so they never get past the "crappy driving" stage. The one year we had several (2009) there were no problems after the first storm in December.
There are morons everywhere, north, south, east, west. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much it snows.
Quote from: Gusington on January 29, 2014, 03:57:27 PM
There are morons everywhere, north, south, east, west. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much it snows.
QFT.
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 29, 2014, 02:48:26 PM
Glad you came through OK. Sounds like it was a mix of a bunch of really bad decisions. The thing that gets me is that *everyone* knew the storm was coming; it didn't sneak up on anybody. Hard to believe the city was *that* unprepared.
Thanks, we could've had it a lot worse.
Yes, it is hard to believe. The Mayor is doing a lot of doublespeak, saying the buck stops with him, but then shifting blame to others. No one's given an adequate answer of why, when we tend to cancel school and shut down non essential travel if snow is simply in the forecast, that the same wasn't done this time when it was really needed.
I think there was an element of the local government reacting to the cry wolf syndrome. The rest of the country laughs at us when there's a light dusting and we shut everything down, so this time they took a prideful gamble.
I was here in 2011 when the last major snow shut the city down, and in that case the local authorities were massively more prepared, so it's not like they don't know what to do when something like this happens.
the kids had fun tho
(https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1/1622189_10201420193322104_3447915_n.jpg)
Sheeeeiiiit. Houston had a bit of sleet and freezing rain. The only thing that stuck were a FEW patches of ice. A FEW.
And yet, the ENTIRE CITY shut down last Friday, as well as yesterday. ::)
I was just in a four-hour meeting today where among other things we met a couple of new trainers based in Canada. I had a conversation with one of them about this very subject, about how adorable it must be that we shut our city down over a little ice while back where he lives it can get to -30 C or so and there's been snow there for months.
Quote from: bayonetbrant on January 29, 2014, 03:18:46 PM
Quote from: Greybriar on January 29, 2014, 03:10:32 PMPeople down there just didn't know how to deal with it.
There's a difference between not knowing how to deal with things and lacking the equipment to deal with it. If you're Ft Polk / Leesville, are you *ever* going to buy a snow plow or a salt truck instead of an extra fire engine? Snow is so rare that investing in snow equipment is cost prohibitive for the once a decade it happens....
And just how much equipment do you think 0.25" of snow would require? They just didn't know how to deal with it. The thousands of trainees stationed at Fort Polk could have swept the snow off the streets in no time.
LOL!
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/29/22493278-weatherman-jim-cantore-wards-off-on-air-ambush?fb_action_ids=727557900589306&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_ref=AddThis_Blogs&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=[589219094492948]&action_type_map=[%22og.recommends%22]&action_ref_map=[%22AddThis_Blogs%22]
It's all in the tires. Summer tires go hard in the cold, just spin. Winter tires stay pliable. They also have cuts in them that wick the water up as it melts under new pressure. Then it freezes locking a thin ribbon of ice to the tire. That is where the ice grip comes from. You are doomed in summer tires, the pressure makes a puddle underneath and you have the friction coefficient of wet ice.
All-weather tires might be a good place to start.
When the plows haven't come out yet and there's snow on the road keep it under 30mph in the city and under 60mph on the highway. Never make any sudden changes in direction or velocity and when you brake modulate your foot and apply pressure gradually. Give yourself plenty of space to make changes in vehicle velocity and direction.
I love the winter especially when it snows. So has anyone done any doughnuts yet or gone car skating?
Quote from: airboy on January 29, 2014, 11:04:56 AM
The University has (so far) cancelled 2 days of classes. At most, there is some ice on the bridges. Roads are clear and dry. But nothing says "Panic!!" like snow in Alabama.
Having grown up with a lot of snow - it would be funny if it was not so sad.
Make it three days of class cancelled.
ditto here
Looks like he's happy! :)
Hopefully it's not severe cold and not too many accidents.
Three free days off work, I'm happy too!
Once I was done enduring the unpleasantness of leaving my vehicle in the snow, it wasn't so bad looking out the window, sipping tea and martinis and playing Rome 2 Patch 9 and X-Com Enemy Within.
I was finally able to get off my hill today and collect my car. Bizarre out there, some parts of the city look normal, others look like a deleted scene out of The Walking Dead. Good thing to see that despite their threats, the Cobb County PD didn't impound anyone's vehicle. I don't think they would have the resources to do so even if they wanted to.
Its weird seeing you guys get all that snow. So far, although we have lots of rain, we have had a snow-free winter.
arent you chaps getting a shitload of flooding?
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on January 30, 2014, 06:46:34 PM
arent you chaps getting a shitload of flooding?
Dahn Sahf they are - but not up here in 't North.