First Snow of the Year

[Balgram]

This is the first time that it has snowed enough to affect driving conditions.

And man, driving conditions have been affected. The commute to work just doubled in time and thrill.

The best part is parking, though. I'm not sure who drives it, but we work next to a machinery plant and they use a mini-bulldozer to clear our the parking lot so we can park there. They do a good job of removing all the snow, but they can't seem to get rid of the ice.

So that's what I get to work with. No snow on top to offer minimal traction, just pure ice.

The commute may be twice as long, but nothing beats the thrill of just barely avoiding skidding into the 20 ft. deep trench next to the parking lot. You fall in, you never come back out.

Anyone else experienced weather related hazards? The snow came awfully late this year for us.

[jedimaster91]

I had to dig my car out of half an inch of ice when I left work today. At 1pm. And one of our regular patrons who I recognized but didn't know scared the crap outta me by COMING UP TO MY CAR and trying to give me deicing tips.

[raw456]

Ahhhhhh..... the joys of living in the land down under. scorching heat and random supercell storms are all we are currently dealing with.

Take care in your commutes guys

[wagegoth]

We have actually had some snow here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and not just on Mount Diablo. Apparently, there was snow in the Oakland hills and even in San Francisco. I'm so glad I don't drive to work. The biggest problem was that people here don't normally ever have to drive in snow, so no one has snow tires or chains, which meant that some people didn't come to work. Happily, everyone showed up on my floor.

But the other problem is that we got our first heavy duty rain of the year. Well, we had a short one a while back, but we've had days of rain and it's frikkin' cold for the area. This means accidents everywhere, because teh stoopid is strong with the driving public.

Now the storm is clearing, leaving the area soaked, and it's supposed to get even colder. Tomorrow the driving public of stoopid will be dealing with ice on the roads, something else we don't normally see here.

[mattm04]

We got a bad ice storm a week ago in Massachusetts. thousands are still with out power. We got a few inches of snow today. Friday we are supposed to get a big storm and Sunday another.

I can just imagine the accidents we will see in the next few days.

[Talendor]

I am in Connecticut and our storm was similar to mattm04's. Where I am located, though, we got almost all ice. We probably recieved about an inch of snow with about 3/4 of an inch of ice. The commute was interesting but I made it.

[Muses_nightmare]

It's -14C here. Though, being in a smaller town, who actually does get some snow people aren't as dumb here. I do get a kick out of the news from Vancouver, since when it snows it's the top story. I'm from Northern BC, this is warm for winter to me!

[Taubin]

I came mere inches from being sideswiped on the way home from work this morning (I work overnight).

Some jackass in a truck decided his truck could handle the ice better than anyone else, flew through a light sideways, whipped the tail end of the truck out, and over-corrected... Coming quite close to my drivers side door in the process... Sad part is, he never even tried to slow down... It's like he came from the south and had NO CLUE roads got slippery when you drop 6+ inches of ice and snow on them...

[nomorecarts]

I'm in a snowy area, where skid recovery is just something you learn. Unfortunately, we have a lot of new people in little cars, so you see the crappy drivers in little cars in the ditches all the time. I have a friend who tipped her Pontiac Vibe on it's side and totaled it going 20 MPH down the road I live a couple turns off of

I pretty much learned to drive on ice, and I drive a V6 4WD Nissan Frontier, so I don't have issues, and if I do I can just pull out of the ditch

[calulu]

Not this year yet, knock on wood desk. But it has spawned some nationwide suckage from customers. They will place an order, ask again and again if it can really be delivered before telling me the area is blanketed by 2 feet of snow or 5 inches or ice or something. I smack myself in the head and start explaining if they called their local florist and he cannot get out to deliver it then I'm not going to have any more luck considering I'm probably calling that same florist.

We get this problem with hurricanes and floods too. You have to patiently explain to people that if the National Guard has ordered everyone out of a particular area then the florist isn't going to be able to do the order.

Hoping the kind of weather you are describing doesn't arrive here next week. They are making all the telecommuters at Flowers O Suck actually work onsite next week.

[mharbourgirl]

Now the storm is clearing, leaving the area soaked, and it's supposed to get even colder. Tomorrow the driving public of stoopid will be dealing with ice on the roads, something else we don't normally see here.

So....California is about to experience a significant decrease in population, I take it?

Sounds like winter over her so far. Instead of snow after snow, drifts as high as my house and weeks of sub-zero temperatures, we're getting this: Freeze - Snow - Thaw - Monsoon - Freeze. Repeat. So while I'm grateful that the snow hasn't been hanging around on the roads long enough to be a serious problem in my section of Nova Scotia, I wish it would just rain. I like rain. I grew up in Gravekeeper's backyard, after all. Snow licks donkey balls.

[Talon]

No major scares yet this season, but one minor one.

Few weeks ago after the first snowstorm, the roads and highways had been mostly clear, but not completely. The sides of the highway, and as I discovered the express-collector interchanges still had some ice on them. So as I started to cross the interchange on to the express doing 80 kp/h (speed limit was 90), my car hit the ice patches and started to ever so slightly skid and fishtail. I casually took my foot off the gas and let the car lose momentum gradually, until it was back under full control. Good thing there was no one else in front or behind me, as that would have been far more unnerving.

[csdrone]

A foot of snow Friday and another foot of snow plus wind to blow it into drifts by Monday.

[ForestDragon]

Gaaack. Sounds like around here -

Step 1. - Snow. Snow for two days, eventually dumps 5 - 6 inches. Snow gets ground/compressed into ice on the roads, interfering with traffic. Airlines are having trouble.

Step 2. - Freezing rain. About half an inch of that. Makes an inch and a half or so of crust atop the aforementioned snow. Airlines are having trouble and are cancelling flights.

Step 3. - More snow. Lots of snow. More canceled flights, buses are limited, cabs nearly nonexistant.


The nasty white stuff is about 8 - 10 inches now with the above mentioned crust inside. I can't get to work since my bus cancelled, so I called in Snowbound and am staying home tonight. Getting to work for the last two days was not for the faint of heart or chronically impatient (or poorly insulated). This will make a three-day weekend for me, which would be good if I'd finished my Christmas shopping. Oh, well, better lack of presents than twisted limbs or broken bones from falling on the effing ice. Again.

[nomorecarts]

my car hit the ice patches and started to ever so slightly skid and fishtail.

I did that at 50 MPH(80 KM/hr) going around a turn one day, in a top heavy vehicle, that one puckered up my asshole.

then there's the time I was in the middle of traffic and had it in 2 wheel drive to save gas, then i hit a patch of ice and it flung my back end to the right and tried to point me at another truck