SNOW DAY!!!!!

poadeleted21

poadeleted21

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Aug 18, 2011
Messages
12,332
WOO HOO!!!! got let out of work around noon today, was told not to come in tomorrow. WITH PAY!!! WOO HOO!!

I love the south.

I've had to literally dig myself out of my house in Alaska to get to work and "estimate" where the road was to drive there. Predicting 1.5" tonight and the whole place shuts down. :rofl:
 
Watch out for any black ice. Stay safe.
 
I don't. We're supposed to get 5-10" here and that is a critical emergency! Problem is....I'm on duty on the ship. So, I'll be stuck here tomorrow. VDOT is crippled.
 
bartmc said:
WOO HOO!!!! got let out of work around noon today, was told not to come in tomorrow. WITH PAY!!! WOO HOO!!

I love the south.

I've had to literally dig myself out of my house in Alaska to get to work and "estimate" where the road was to drive there. Predicting 1.5" tonight and the whole place shuts down. :rofl:
Click to expand...

LOL, here's a pic of the massive snowstorm we're getting in Charlotte.
 

Attachments

  • Blizzardof2014.jpg
    Blizzardof2014.jpg
    109.4 KB · Views: 90
bartmc said:
WOO HOO!!!! got let out of work around noon today, was told not to come in tomorrow. WITH PAY!!! WOO HOO!!

I love the south.

I've had to literally dig myself out of my house in Alaska to get to work and "estimate" where the road was to drive there. Predicting 1.5" tonight and the whole place shuts down. :rofl:
Click to expand...

I'm just up the road from you near Augusta. I'm getting some time off too, except not with pay. As a consultant I get paid for what I work. It's great for not being screwed out of overtime but not so great when it comes to time off. At least the pay is good enough to makeup for the downtime though.

One of the biggest problems here in the south is drivers just don't know how to drive in these conditions. The roads ice up and people are sliding around into each other causing wrecks. I can drive on snow with no problem, but ice is a different story.
 
The North Side of Atlanta is a mess. The weather was just right for the ~1" or so of snow to land, melt, and refreeze. Worse, every school system and workplace made a closure decision between 12:30 and 1:00 this afternoon, turning what is already a terrible rush hour into complete gridlock.

The last 8 miles of my commute took 4.5 hours, and a lady in a Porsche Boxster proved that one idiot in a car can close 5 lanes of an interstate by sheer ineptitude at driving in adverse conditions.
 
Schools here in the midlands were closed today and will be again tomorrow. It's 8:30 and we're just now getting a few flakes. It was dry here all afternoon! But I did get to leave work early. Will probably have a late start tomorrow. Too much hype for this storm on the Wx Channel.
 
kyleb said:
The North Side of Atlanta is a mess. The weather was just right for the ~1" or so of snow to land, melt, and refreeze. Worse, every school system and workplace made a closure decision between 12:30 and 1:00 this afternoon, turning what is already a terrible rush hour into complete gridlock.

The last 8 miles of my commute took 4.5 hours, and a lady in a Porsche Boxster proved that one idiot in a car can close 5 lanes of an interstate by sheer ineptitude at driving in adverse conditions.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a normal day on the Atlanta interstate system.
 
kyleb said:
The North Side of Atlanta is a mess. The weather was just right for the ~1" or so of snow to land, melt, and refreeze. Worse, every school system and workplace made a closure decision between 12:30 and 1:00 this afternoon, turning what is already a terrible rush hour into complete gridlock.

The last 8 miles of my commute took 4.5 hours, and a lady in a Porsche Boxster proved that one idiot in a car can close 5 lanes of an interstate by sheer ineptitude at driving in adverse conditions.
Click to expand...

North Georgia is the same. We were suppose to have a 30 % chance in Ellijay buts it's a solid 2.5 inches up here. With no plows on the roads cars are stuck all over my neighborhood. Good night to stay inside, drink a few beers and watch a movie.
 
Velocity173 said:
North Georgia is the same. We were suppose to have a 30 % chance in Ellijay buts it's a solid 2.5 inches up here. With no plows on the roads cars are stuck all over my neighborhood. Good night to stay inside, drink a few beers and watch a movie.
Click to expand...

2.5" is a dusting and I wouldn't expect plows. A Prius should have no issues.
 
Three of my wife's coworkers still aren't home, and the shut down the office at 2:00! I'd rather drive up north in 2 feet of snow than around here in 2 inches.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
The most important step in learning to drive in the winter is to learn how to drive without brakes. Drive your car more like an airplane. Manage your kinetic energy by gradually and smoothly applying and withdrawing power. The brake is something you use once the car has nearly come to a stop on its own, not something you use to slow down.

Once you learn to do that, you're three-quarters along the way to being a competent and capable winter driver.

-Rich
 
-11F Sun night

-20F last night

-10F tonight

3-5" of snow on Thursday

Winter in Green Bay, WI is rough this year.
 
RJM62 said:
The most important step in learning to drive in the winter is to learn how to drive without brakes. Drive your car more like an airplane. Manage your kinetic energy by gradually and smoothly applying and withdrawing power. The brake is something you use once the car has nearly come to a stop on its own, not something you use to slow down.

Once you learn to do that, you're three-quarters along the way to being a competent and capable winter driver.

-Rich
Click to expand...


Being from Connecticut, I feel just fine driving in the snow, now if I could just teach the other 4 million of my fellow Metro Atlantans. :)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
RJM62 said:
The most important step in learning to drive in the winter is to learn how to drive without brakes. Drive your car more like an airplane. Manage your kinetic energy by gradually and smoothly applying and withdrawing power. The brake is something you use once the car has nearly come to a stop on its own, not something you use to slow down.

Once you learn to do that, you're three-quarters along the way to being a competent and capable winter driver.

-Rich
Click to expand...

I'd say the most important step is realizing that most drivers aren't aware of your most important step.
 
bartmc said:
2.5" is a dusting and I wouldn't expect plows. A Prius should have no issues.
Click to expand...

Snow is one thing. It is easy to drive on snow. When the snow melts and turns to a sheet of ice, that is a different issue. Also, Atlanta has hills everywhere, which makes the ice even more problematic.
 
Velocity173 said:
North Georgia is the same. We were suppose to have a 30 % chance in Ellijay buts it's a solid 2.5 inches up here. With no plows on the roads cars are stuck all over my neighborhood. Good night to stay inside, drink a few beers and watch a movie.
Click to expand...


Stuck? Seriously??
 
denverpilot said:
Stuck? Seriously??
Click to expand...


Seriously. My wife's boss just got home. 7 hours door to door. You have to understand that the road clearing strategy here is: "it will melt eventually".



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
kyleb said:
Snow is one thing. It is easy to drive on snow. When the snow melts and turns to a sheet of ice, that is a different issue. Also, Atlanta has hills everywhere, which makes the ice even more problematic.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's the problem up here. Unless you've got chains on your tires you're not going anywhere. Combine that with the fact no one salted the roads in my area and you've got a mess.
 
bartmc said:
WOO HOO!!!! got let out of work around noon today, was told not to come in tomorrow. WITH PAY!!! WOO HOO!!

I love the south.

I've had to literally dig myself out of my house in Alaska to get to work and "estimate" where the road was to drive there. Predicting 1.5" tonight and the whole place shuts down. :rofl:
Click to expand...

Yup - in NC if they see a few snowflakes they close the schools and everybody disappears.

Dave
 
Velocity173 said:
Yep, that's the problem up here. Unless you've got chains on your tires you're not going anywhere. Combine that with the fact no one salted the roads in my area and you've got a mess.
Click to expand...

I drove through Atlanta just after an ice storm once. Mess is an understatement.

Dave
 
denverpilot said:
Stuck? Seriously??
Click to expand...

Seriously. One of my clients in North Georgia has some of his men in the field staying in hotels, and others who are stuck far from hotels.

It's kind of hard for me to wrap my head around. Where I live, if the prediction is for 4" of snow, we barely shrug. That's nothing. My guy who plows the driveway doesn't even come unless the snow is more than 4". But if people don't have the experience driving in it, and governments don't have the resources to move it and melt it, it can be a major mess.

-Rich
 
Last edited:
denverpilot said:
Stuck? Seriously??
Click to expand...

Yeah, look at the weather channel. People are stuck all over Georgia tonight. Ice, sleet, snow with roads not plowed/sanded. No one has snow tires or chains and that's what you get. Last year I missed a day of work because I couldn't even get out of my neighborhood. I drive a hybrid with low friction tires so I do have a legit excuse. :)
 
Last edited:
RJM62 said:
The most important step in learning to drive in the winter is to learn how to drive without brakes. Drive your car more like an airplane. Manage your kinetic energy by gradually and smoothly applying and withdrawing power.
Once you learn to do that, you're three-quarters along the way to being a competent and capable winter driver.
-Rich
Click to expand...
Rich, with you living in New York I'm sure you get plenty of practice doing that. Here in the south we see conditions like this once or twice a year, so nobody knows how to drive in this stuff. Since it is such a seldom event, nobody is taught how to drive in it. You also mention driving in 4" of snow. Snow is not so bad, Down here it is usually sleet and ice with very little snow. I haven't seen a snowflake yet, but my deck is a solid sheet of ice. My daughters car is outside the garage and it is enclosed in a sheet of ice too.
 
Last edited:
The funny part is I watched the local news last night and all the folks in charge we're bragging about their new equipment and plans they had in place so this wouldn't be a repeat of the storm of 2011. Oops.

At least it's supposed to warm up in the next few days. Back in 2011, it stayed below freezing for several days and the roads just became sheets of ice. I remember driving on a major 4 lane road near my house and seeing police on scene as they pulled a car out of a picket fence. I thought, finally, the county would come out to do something about the sheet of ice that would just not go away due to the shade. Wrong! Drove by the next day, same sheet of ice and a second car sized hole in the fence 30 feet down from the first.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
kyleb said:
Snow is one thing. It is easy to drive on snow. When the snow melts and turns to a sheet of ice, that is a different issue. Also, Atlanta has hills everywhere, which makes the ice even more problematic.
Click to expand...

Snow steals traction, but gives back a bit in drag. Ice is not so generous. I rarely cancel a car trip because of snow. It's just not realistic here. But when the temperature is so low that the salt's not going to work and the roads are going to be icy, I stay put.

-Rich
 
Damn! If it gets any colder I might have to wear long sleeves tomorrow.
 
MickYoumans said:
Rich, with you living in New York I'm sure you get plenty of practice doing that. Here in the south we see conditions like this once or twice a year, so nobody knows how to drive in this stuff. Since it is such a seldom event, nobody is taught how to drive in it.
Click to expand...

A coefficient of friction of near zero is still near zero. At some point, your cars' tires cannot deliver enough traction to carry you up one hill or stop you from sliding down the next hill.

Honestly, I'm a 90+ percentile driver driving a car that is probably 75 percentile in these conditions. I still had minor wheel spin in several locations. People with RWD were just screwed once they had to stop on a hill. And then people started running out of gas, abandoning cars, etc.

It is a real mess. Fortunately, most traffic was moving slow enough that even the worst accidents were pretty much fender benders.
 
Anyone watch Jim Cantore in Charleston today? He was right in the middle of a live broadcast and some idiot ran at him yelling. Jim gave him a little kick or a stiff arm and kept on talking. Hilarious!
 
GA Hwy 60, north of Mineral Bluff this afternoon:

12197590116_de9a5c0dd5.jpg


Semi was stuck, as were the cars on the hill in the distance.

Just a few days ago we bought a used 2011 Ford Flex with AWD, and it powered right up the hill, albeit very slowly and carefully and got us home from Blue Ridge.

Still, quite a mess and lots of people stuck. The hills are what make the difference.
 
Velocity173 said:
Anyone watch Jim Cantore in Charleston today? He was right in the middle of a live broadcast and some idiot ran at him yelling. Jim gave him a little kick or a stiff arm and kept on talking. Hilarious!
Click to expand...

Just found that on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/vTqNjzwjeDI

Good reflexes! Judo training perhaps?
 
I took my DIL around 6 hours to make her 17 mile commute from work to home with a stop to pick up her oldest son.

In my neck of the woods, NE of the city, we got very little.

snow_1.jpg

snow_2.jpg

snow_3.jpg
 
Enjoy the rare weather and stay safe. We had a "cold day" today... my employer closed the entire campus due to the wind chill advisory. This was the third emergency closure this winter, the most in one season that I can remember for the last 20 years.
 
It took me 5 hours to get home.:mad2: My 4X4 never slipped a bit, other folks, well that's another story! I was on a 4 lane road, with 5 lanes going North! And nobody was moving, a couple tractor trailers were blocking the road. I sat there for well over an hour, finally on car moved and suddenly a lane opened up and away we went!:yes: Then it took another hour to find an open roadway to get to the house. It's hard to describe the mess, cars running out of gas, gas stations running out of gas, fender benders everywhere, cars just left in the middle of the roads!:yikes: The smell of burning tires as people try to power up icy hills. I'm just glad to be home.:D
 
I headed out around 4 PM. At 6:45 I'd covered less than a mile due to gridlock, so I turned around and went back to the office. Fortunately, there's a Target nearby that was still open, so I went in and bought an air mattress, blanket, and pillow and some breakfast cereal, and I'll be camping out in my office tonight. Last time I checked, which was about 30 minutes ago, that road I was trying to traverse is still gridlocked.

I've lived through any number of Atlanta snow and ice storms and this is the worst one, traffic wise. Conditions were good this morning so everything was open, and then it all went pear shaped in a hurry. Even people trying to leave midday got stuck in gridlock traffic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top