Any of you Southern Peeps Snowed In?

[monsoon]

[Guest donaltopablo]

I got ice in the car windows, ugly rainy, cloud, grey day. But otherwise, nothing down here in Atlanta. Might be a little worse north of here as you get into the foothills.

[cityboi]

I noticed that Charlotte received a dusting compared to what we got in Greensboro. I imagine, Winston-Salem got even more.

[Allan]

Actually this morning on the news they said that 7 people in North Carolina were killed yesterday and overnight because of the hadardous driving conditions. It was actually the top story.

It always amazes me how just a couple inches of snow shuts down the south. Here it takes about 10 inches to shut down the entire city, but a good 6 inches before they close schools. I absolutely hate driving in the snow...I've slid off the road one too many times. Of course the fact that I had never driven on snow or ice, and then all of the sudden had to drive to school in 6 inches of snow one morning didn't help either.

*Hopes the giant snowstorm headed to Detroit closes school tomorrow*

[turlough]

I absolutely hate driving in the snow...I've slid off the road one too many times. Of course the fact that I had never driven on snow or ice

Yeah I know what it's like it scars the crap out of ya. It was the one of the most scaryest thing that has ever happen to me.

[Allan]

Yeah I know what it's like it scars the crap out of ya. It was the one of the most scaryest thing that has ever happen to me.

Yea, that's why I made a new policy for myself: Never go anywhere when it's snowing unless I have to.

[JunktionFET]

The reason why snow has such an impact on southern cities is because they lack the equipment to properly service roadways and such. It really is extremely dangerous because the snow isn't plowed or salted sufficiently, so you're forced to drive on what is literally a sheet of ice.

Erie PA can get 20 inches of snow and the impact on the city's activity is brief, maybe a day or so to get everything back to normal...

In NC with 20 inches of snow, you won't even see asphault until about 2 weeks have passed!

[Allan]

Actually Detroit does not get that much snow, at least not compared to the other areas in the state. So whenever we have large amounts of snow they use whatever is available to plow the roads (ie construction equipment). And they bring in snowplows from other parts of the state that get much more snow. Around here we only get around 40 inches total for the entire season. On the west side of the state, they get twice as much as we do. And up north, well, they average a lot more. In fact, my friend who is going to college up there told me they've had 22 days on continuous snow. 148.4 inches of snow so far this winter...and it's not even half over yet!

It really is extremely dangerous because the snow isn't plowed or salted sufficiently, so you're forced to drive on what is literally a sheet of ice.

We have the same exact problem. However, after the first couple times the roads get icy, people are used to driving on them. Down south I think it's fair to say that most people have had very little experience driving on snowy and icy roads. Hence, entire metros are shut down with just a light snowfall.

[monsoon]

[Matthew]

The weatherman from channel 2 WSB-TV said it would be in the 60's, with Sunday reaching 64 F. I thought what a great weekend to go back home to Asheville and visit my family and take some photos. What a surprise! I didn't get any photos, other than some I took driving in through SC. At least UGA-Athens closed yesterday for the ice. I didn't want to drive in that Sunday night. The roads aren't bad now. I took I-26 to I-85 in Spartanburg. I thought that route would be safe. I think the upper foothills and northern mountains got more snow than we did. I'm glad I went home though. I haven't been back home since Christmas break and it snowed then. My sister said to stop bringing in the snow and ice with me, when I go home.

[Neo]

It's not really the snow that does this, it's the ice packed roads that result of us being in a part of the country that receives a mixture between rain and snow. Places like Chicago & NY primarily receive snow while the conditions down here would result in ice, and I don't care where you are in the country, you simply cannot drive on ice without leaving yourself extremly vulnerable. The salt pretty much stops working at 26F so we pretty much get screwed.

[Allan]

The weatherman from channel 2 WSB-TV said it would be in the 60's, with Sunday reaching 64 F.

60s? You are so lucky. We've got at least 2 more months before we even see a chance of it getting that warm!

Right now it's 25 & snowing. The snowflakes are bigger than any I've ever seen. They're like snow balls! And I can't even see the trees right outside the window. I don't even want to guess how much snow I'm going to have to shovel off my car at the end of the day. This storm system is rotating right over Michigan, so we could see upwards of a foot of additional snow.

It's not really the snow that does this, it's the ice packed roads that result of us being in a part of the country that receives a mixture between rain and snow. Places like Chicago & NY primarily receive snow while the conditions down here would result in ice, and I don't care where you are in the country, you simply cannot drive on ice without leaving yourself extremly vulnerable. The salt pretty much stops working at 26F so we pretty much get screwed.

Actually you'd be surprised. We get mixtures of rain, snow, and freezing rain quite often. In fact, that's what we're getting right now. The roads this morning were solid ice. I have to agree though, driving on ice is very dangerous, as evidenced by the 3 accidents I saw during my 1.5 mile drive to school. I do have a question though....if salt stops working at 26F, how do we get rid of our snow? Because it's the township policy here that they will not plow roads until there is at least 6 inches of snow on them - they will only salt up until that point. And obviously it gets a lot colder than 26 up here quite often during the winter. In fact, I don't think it's been 26 degrees here since mid December. LOL.

[Neo]

I do have a question though....if salt stops working at 26F, how do we get rid of our snow? Because it's the township policy here that they will not plow roads until there is at least 6 inches of snow on them - they will only salt up until that point. And obviously it gets a lot colder than 26 up here quite often during the winter. In fact, I don't think it's been 26 degrees here since mid December. LOL.

Perhaps I should change my statement a little, it stops being very effective at 26F. It takes six times more salt to be effective below 26F than it does at temperatures above 26F. They can also apply a certain mixture before it gets too bad to help decrease the effects of new ice that falls (so I've heard...they call it sludge or something like that around here). This storm pretty much caught us off-guard so we weren't prepared as much as areas are up north who get considerable more amounts of this stuff than we do.

[Rail Claimore]

We've got some snow flurries falling here in Huntsville. Nothing major.

[bobliocatt]

70 degrees or so here in Jax.

[Matthew]

It also snowed when I was home for Thanksgiving break/mid-term break.

The 60 F degree weather was predicted falsely by an Atlanta weatherman (Glen Burns). As the Atlanta forum member said, they had ice and freezing weather. I usually have to subtract 5-7 degrees from the Atlanta forcast for Asheville or use Blairsville on his forcast. He predicted this after a week of upper 30's to low 40's for highs. Georgia should be in the mid to upper 50's, or so I thought.

Asheville was only 27 F Sunday around news time. Winston-Salem was 18 F with snow. I was thinking how great it would be to take photos of the New England architecture in Old Salem or Bethabara Park in the snow.

[Brickhead]

We got 3-5 inches of snow Sunday night in Richmond, and we had freezing drizzle all day Monday. Everything (schools, government, business) was shut down on Monday, but only schools are closed today. It's just a big nasty mess, lots of black ice on streets and sidewalks, but at least the temps should be above freezing the next couple of days.

AND, I don't know about y'all, but I get sick of these dang Yankees with their "these Southerners don't know how to drive in the snow" bull-hockey. Look, if it's ice, nobody can drive safely on that mess. BTW, these are the same yankees who wilt when the temp goes over 80 degrees and the humidity starts to kick in.

Sorry, that was almost a rant. It's cold and icy here, and I hate it.

Lakelander, I hate you. j/k , enjoy your nice weather.

[thumper]

It has been my observation brickhead the ones having accidents are the transplants from up north. Over confidence and having something to prove would be my guess.

[thumper]

And SUV owners.

[Neo]

It has been my observation brickhead the ones having accidents are the transplants from up north. Over confidence and having something to prove would be my guess.

LOL! While riding with a co-worker to work this morning (lives in my neighborhood) some dude in a Hummer (the new model, H2) passed us on ice...now pardon me but I don't care if you're driving a Hummer or a Toyota Corolla...there is no way that's safe!

[Allan]

It has been my observation brickhead the ones having accidents are the transplants from up north. Over confidence and having something to prove would be my guess.

We forget how to drive in snow. LOL. The first snowstorm always makes commuting very dangerous, as people slide down the road at 60 mph.

Perhaps I should change my statement a little, it stops being very effective at 26F. It takes six times more salt to be effective below 26F than it does at temperatures above 26F. They can also apply a certain mixture before it gets too bad to help decrease the effects of new ice that falls (so I've heard...they call it sludge or something like that around here). This storm pretty much caught us off-guard so we weren't prepared as much as areas are up north who get considerable more amounts of this stuff than we do.

Oh, ok. No wonder they put down so much salt! Around here the roads still have salt residue on them in June...2-3 months after the snow has melted! Maybe if they used something more effective at melting the snow, or even better, actually plowed it.... Oh well. And I've never heard of this mixture. I guess they don't use it up here. You'd think they would.

[Brickhead]

And SUV owners. 

Some SUV owners are nuts. They buy these things because they think they can drive them anywhere in any conditions. Wrong!

Southerners who buy SUV's because they want to have "something safe" to drive when it snows = teh stupid!

[JunktionFET]

Living in a suburban area, you can go anywhere you need to go with 2WD in a decently balanced car. If the snow gets over 6" depth, I find it necessary to install my chains... With chains and some common sense, you can literally go anywhere.

I don't think NC allows studded tires during any part of the year, though I might be wrong... so really the only viable choice is chains or "snow tires". I have found that snow tires are a joke unless you are driving in less than 4" of snow.

[Allan]

Chains for 6 inches of snow? I don't have any chains for my tires at all. Nor do I have snow tires on my car. And I have never had any problems with getting stuck in snow...even when we have 8 inches like we had today.

[JunktionFET]

Chains for 6 inches of snow? I don't have any chains for my tires at all. Nor do I have snow tires on my car. And I have never had any problems with getting stuck in snow...even when we have 8 inches like we had today.

Yeah well, I have a car that starts to plow the snow when it gets to a depth of 6", so I don't have much of a choice.