I live 7 miles from the accident site. I received a text alert about the accident and another when the highway re-opened 9 hours later. Quite the mess. We had a good bit of snow (6-8 inches) the previous day and about 18 inches since Friday.
And yet another day off here, though this one is from just plain cold, not snow. It’s currently 6F outside, and was even colder a couple of hours ago when folks would have been going to school, and then windchill on top of that.
I’m sure that nobody is complaining about the four-day weekend.
Yep, that was the temp when I started my car this morning at 5:40 am. Unfortunately, I was starting my car at 5:40 am because our district didn’t deem it cold enough to go to an E-day. The policy is that the wind chill has to be colder than - 20 degrees, and it was only - 13.
I’m getting a bit concerned about the winter weather hitting the South this weekend. For the last 5 years, we have had at least one major snow/ice event, which is something that has historically happened once a decade. I was really hoping to miss that this year. But apparently we won’t. The forecast has been swinging from 5-8 inches of snow to 8-12! The days following will only have highs in the low 20s. That will paralyze Memphis. And I have a time-sensitive doctor’s appointment that Tuesday. Just fuck.
As I noted in the mini-rants thread in the Pit, this whole month so far (and much of December, too) has been day after day of (mostly) light snow – no blizzards, but it does build up despite some warm spells. It appears to be largely because of the La Nina cycle in the tropical Pacific.
The evidence is the mountains of snow at the curbsides of driveways and around parking lots. Those piles of snow are actually a serious safety hazard, because, for instance, pulling out of the supermarket parking lot onto an adjacent roadway, I can’t see if another vehicle is about to rush by. And since the parking lot and adjacent roadway are both private property, there’s probably not much that regulators can do about it. I’m surprised there hasn’t already been an accident there – or maybe there has, and the blood and debris was cleaned up.
I’m eyeballing that same storm. They’re hard as hell to predict accurately, too. We could get snow, sleet, freezing rain or just rain, or some combination thereof. We’ll prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
If it fits some of the early models it will be absolutely catastrophic for some areas. Some show more than 1 inch of ice accumulation from freezing rain, which could do more damage than Helene did to the area last year.
I can’t really Post in this thread because we get snow here in Buffalo all the time, every other day…
… But this weekend it’s supposed to be really bad. It will be interesting to read this thread on Saturday and Sunday and see how people are faring then. Sunday it’s supposed to… Be really bad for some areas. I would highly suggest people stock up before Sunday gets here and not make any plans to go out that day.
The DC area could get hammered this weekend, or not. We’ve lived here since 1998 and I can’t count the times almost sure things fizzled out.
I’m nervous about the ice/sleet/snow forecast for this weekend, as well. It looks like DFW is supposed to start out with freezing rain on Friday night, continuing on with sleet and snow through Saturday, and finishing of Sunday with light snow. After that, we’ll finally get above freezing again on Tuesday. Lows in the single digits on Sunday night. Ugh.
Michigan.
A couple weeks ago I was complaining about cold rain (a hallmark of climate change this time of year) and lamented the lack of snow. I’ve been eating my words since last Wednesday, when it felt like a snow explosion on the evening commute. It took me two hours to get home (usually an hour) and it was an emotionally intense ride home, I’ll put it that way. The next day I had taken PTO because we had all these plans for stuff to find my son the right school, as well as an IEP meeting with his current school - all rescheduled due to school closures.
Then yesterday we get hit with below freezing temps and it killed my car battery. After 90 minutes trying to jump it, had to have my husband take me to get a new battery, then I had to borrow his car to pick up my kid, cancelled the kid’s therapy and brought him home so I could spend the rest of the day in a race against sunset trying to install the new battery. It took 90 minutes in subzero temps with inadequate tools, but I did it.
This morning they didn’t cancel school so I figured the morning commute to work would be fine. It was not. More heavy snowfall. It took me 90 minutes to get to work (usually 40 minutes) thanks to no less than three cars in ditches. I went home early because I couldn’t stand the idea of rush hour traffic in another snow bomb.
Every time I get home I think, thank goodness I didn’t end up in a ditch somewhere. That’s what driving has been like these days.
We’re expecting -20F wind chill Friday and I’ll be shocked if school is open. So we had to change all of our Friday plans accordingly.
And all this time with rescheduling appointments constantly and trying to get all this stuff done for my kid, I’m also supposed to be getting work done. This snow is seriously messing up my life plans!
(Oh God, I hope our pipes don’t freeze. It’s happened before.)
Well, we now have accumulation predictions in DFW. 0.25"-0.5" of ice, with 2-5" of snow and sleet on top of it. That’s better than the 1" of ice I saw being guessed before, at least.
Well, at least you’re in better physical condition than I am. I couldn’t lift a car battery to save my life, let alone replace one. In your situation I would have called a tow truck for a jump if I didn’t have the facilities to jump it myself, and then driven it or had it towed to a repair shop. You are brave and strong!
In Ohio they are guessing 12 inches.
the east coast is tough to predict due to mountains and the atlantic ocean. philly is looking at between 10-20 " if the storm tracks north we will get snow, ice, snow. if it tracks south we get all snow.
yest. the model was showing a more north track, today it is a bit more south.
the snow just may not be disappointing this time.
NYC is fortifying as it does: I just walked back from the Stupidmarket with milk, eggs, bread, vanilla extract, cinnamon and challah. The bread’s for sammiches but what the HELL- how does one face a storm without French Toast?? I ask you.
Mom’s in the Philly area, north of the city line, and they’re unsure how screwed they’re gonna be.
We live in an apartment building. That means, virtually no chance of power outages. ( I’m in Astoria, Queens- a mile or so from 2 of the hugest power generators in the city and surrounding environs. )
Mostly this means that the MTA Subways may shut down. Snow? Feh. They roll their stock. Ice storms? Not so much. The switches above ground ( I’m at an elevated stop ) can freeze up. They’ve taken to burying all of the rolling stock under ground when a big storm hits.
Unable to walk the 2 hrs and 18 minutes of walking when the walk is safe and dry. It’d be every bit of 3 1/2 - 4 hours. So, hoping this all is blown through by Monday morning. If we’re lucky, the company will book rooms for us for Monday night rather than have half the crew stranded in their suburban driveways.
Keep an eye out for the old people. People on walkers.
Be good to one another !!
By way of comparison, the blizzard of January 1996 comes up every time they’re looking at “serious snow”. Fuckin’ A. 33 inches where I lived back then, in southern Orange County, NY. Drifts up to 5 feet and more. Aaaaaawesome.
What walk is this? To work? Exercise?
It’s been a while since I had to do anything like that but yeah, I felt somewhat accomplished - and numb.
We are bracing for extreme cold tonight through Saturday. The kid’s school is cancelled as well it should be. I’m exhausted.
I’m also not gonna lie, I’ve been a shitty employee this month and I feel bad about it. I’ve got a lot of work to do but it’s like every goddamn day it gets derailed by stuff with my kid and/or weather. Plus we’re setting up a trust and I have three medical appointments coming up. I’m burning through PTO. We have three more school tours to get through. I’m trying to stuff work into the cracks.
Montreal - Saturday a.m. wind chill as low as -38 (C or F - not much difference at that level). Temperatures into the -20’s C (around -10 F). No records to be set - we won’t reach the -30 C level.
Unknown quantity of snow forecast for Sunday and Monday - could be up to 20 cm (8 in).
In Northeast Ohio, we are predicted to get 6 inches, or more. How much, they don’t know.