Odd Weather Event

[Flying Turtle]

Here in central NC a little snow will normally cause a few minor problems, but yesterday's event takes the cake. We were forcast to get some flurries. Around noon it started falling and by two o'clock we had gotten about an inch. This was enough to freak out the local school systems, so an early dismissal was called. People started hitting the roads to get their kids or just get home since it looked worse than expected. It never got above freezing so the roads did get icy and the accidents started happening. Gridlock ensued. School buses and commuters ended up getting caught in traffic, some spending five or six hours just to go ten or twenty miles. In the end over 3,000 kids spent the night at some 56 different schools in my county. There were over 600 accidents. All this for about an inch of snow. I stayed away from the major highways and made it home just fine. Now they're saying it's likely to happen again tonight.

Geoff

 

[d'mo]

Wow, an inch of snow isn't even enough to get the kids excited up here.

A year or two ago, we had a snow event in Buffalo that caused traffic snarl ups, but that was 3 or 4 feet falling in a few hours.

 

[Chris_Medico]

The roads leading to Hillsboro weren't too bad thank god. Some of the folks here at work didn't get home in N. Ral until after midnight.

Lets see what happens tonight. Tomorrow could be interesting.

 

[wwglen]

My take on southerns and snow (I am from SC and live in NC)

LOOK... a snow flake...

(point out the back window at snow as driving)

CRASH...

D4MN SNOW made the roars slick and caused me to crash.

wwglen

 

[Lurker]

I live in Raleigh and work in RTP and was in the middle of yesterday's weird snowstorm. It was indeed strange. But I don't think it was just the stereotypical Southern drivers freaking out over a bit of snow. That was the slipperiest 1 inch of snow I have ever seen. It turned to pure ice right away. I have plenty of snow driving experience having lived in Buffalo, Canada, Colorado, Chicago and Michigan and the snow we get in NC is sometimes worse for driving than I have seen in any of those other places.

Combine that with the fact that no one has snow tires, the hilliness of certain areas around town, a limited number of salt trucks and that the roads are already at peak capacity on a normal day. It's a bad combination. Fortunately it usually only happens 2 or 3 days per year and never before as bad as yesterday.

 

[kitelights]

We got part of the same system here in Central VA and it was bad, but not quite as bad as you guys had in NC. Plenty of parents upset that their kids didn't get home until after 6:00, but at least they made it home.

Accidents stopped traffic for 3-4 hours at a time including I-95. My GF's 20 minute commute took her two and half hours.

I spent 3 years in the midwest as a young driver, so I was exposed to 15-20 inch snows and consider myself a competent driver in these conditions, but the consistancy of yesterday's snow was something that I've never experienced.

It started out as a dry blowing snow and turned into larger heavier flakes. There were newscasts of people trying to push their cars and they were having trouble standing up. It's like it was solid ice. And there was no freezing rain or sleet.

They're calling for the same tonight, only more of it, and again Sat and Sun. It just started here about 20 minutes ago.

 

[greenLED]

I remember a couple of years back while living in Raleigh, we were trapped by about a foot of snow. Took more than a week for the city to clear, as we had to wait for snowplows to clean their way down from VA and the NC mountains. IIRC schools were closed for about 10 days or so (or long enough to drive us nuts...)

 

[James S]

But people up north can be just as stupid. even in Area's where they get a ton of snow.

Driving back from Berea Kentucky to Chicago one winter while passing through Indiana i watched people just drive off the road into the ditch. At least 4 times. It was snowing, but it wasn't sticking or even slippery yet. Just a bit of snow in the air and blowing across the road but not enough to even really be a problem for visibility. But 4 times I watched people just sort of give up. They didn't stop, they didn't have an accident or loose control, they just slowly drifted off the road into the ditch and stopped. I was driving an 84 honda accord at the time so no big 4 wheel drive cars saving me /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

While living in Wisconsin one winter I did try to get to work in my little saturn. But all the people in SUV's just considered that in spite of the inch of ice on the roads and the snow still falling that they could just drive like it was any other day and after passing 4 accidents and watching the SUV three cars ahead of me spin around 3 times while trying to execute a left turn I decided I had no business on the road and turned around (at the same place as the SUV and yet not loosing control with nothing but 2 wheel drive) and went home and called in sane to work that day.'

But there was the episode in Savannah Georgia where we stopped for gas during a snow storm once. This was the exact snow storm wwglen described above. "oh look honey, a snow flake!'... 2 minutes pass ... "look honey, there's another one!" and while stopped at the gas station and buying some snacks a lady ran in and hysterically calls out to all the other people in there "Has anyone heard if they have closed the schools yet?!!!"

I was laughing too hard to answer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

James

 

[BlindedByTheLite]

LOL, wow. we just got 17" of snow today. i'm plowed in /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[geepondy]

Black ice is worse then snow and can happen in snowbelt areas as well. Last Dec. 2003, we got probably only a half inch of snow but the conditions were just right and it turned into black ice and I was stuck in traffic, taking three hours to go five miles. I'll take the snow anytime, it's more predictable.

 

[BlindedByTheLite]

i definitely agree. our main roads are pretty well clear. our backroads are covered in hard pack snow. but here @ my apartment complex, the owner doesn't know how to plow, and he always packs the parking lot into solid ice. it's basically a skating rink covered in an inch of hard pack snow.

that's probly the biggest reason ppl should get winter tires.

 

[meeshu]

Odd weather everywhere! Here in NZ during December 2004, we had cold wintery weather with snow, during summer!!?? Weird!