Any of you Southern Peeps Snowed In?

[monsoon]

[sleepy]

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.

Right. Chains and studded tires seem to be a southern thing, maybe even snow tires too.

Before I moved to MN, I thought I'd have to get all that. But I never found anyone up here who uses them.

The problem for me with driving in much more than six inches of snow is that the snow just acts as a barrier to forward motion, and your car becomes a mini-snowplow.

On a related matter, we broke zero today for the first time since Tuesday morning.

[Allan]

On a related matter, we broke zero today for the first time since Tuesday morning.

LOL. Wow. And I thought Michigan was cold! We're preparing for a heat wave ourselves. It's supposed to be 34 Tuesday!

[monsoon]

[JunktionFET]

Chains work quite well on ice... You still want to drive very slow, but chains on the drive wheels gives a bit of "tank tread" grip. As my southern peeps know for sure, no one can drive at anything over a crawl on a truly icy road.

Chains helped me climb in and out of my rather steep driveway. Without them, the car literally slid down the hill with the e-brake set and the tranny in gear.

Sleepy, studded tires and chains are not a southern thing exclusively. I know several people from Erie PA as well as northern Ohio... studded tires are "standard equipment" for many of them. And Erie is the place where I bought "heavy duty" snow chains--better than the cheapo set they sell around here.

Though they may not be an absolute necessity in the "freeze-your-ass-off belt" (upper midwest), it seems they can be quite common in the "snow belt" (upstate OH, PA, NY).

I-90, especially around Ashtabula OH has been known to literally white-out and accumulated feet of snow in a matter of hours.

[Allan]

I didn't even think about the hills before. Michigan is flat, as is Minnesota. North Carolina does have hills, so I could see where you might use chains if you couldn't get up them.

[monsoon]

[Allan]

LOL, the hills in NC are the highest in eastern North America.

Yeah, maybe mountain would've been a better word. LOL.

[monsoon]

[Matthew]

Right now in Georgia:

Freezing Rain and Thunderstorms.

I thought, wow that wind is bad! Then I thought, that sounds like thunder? Thunder in February, with ice on the trees and houses? Next time I heard it, I looked out the window and yes, we are having a freezing thunderstorm. There's ice on the trees and buildings, a good heavy rain outside and thunder. I don't think I've ever experienced a "Freezing Thunderstorm"? We just don't have these back home in Asheville. None of my classes at the University of Georgia are cancelled. I need to check my messages and see if anyone is cancelling. Last ice storm, the whole campus closed.

[turlough]

I saw it on the weather channel but it was in a snow storm its called "Thunder Snow"

[Allan]

I remember a couple years back we had a thunder snow. It is a rare occurance, however.

Actually we're going to be having an ice storm tonight. I don't even want to guess what I'm going to have to drive in tomorrow morning.

[JunktionFET]

I remember a couple instances of thundersnow--all of them during the time I lived in Raleigh and Cary. First was 1993, then 1996, a lot of it in 2000 (during the 2 foot nor'easter), and most recently in the 14 incher from 2002.

It is quite a sight because I couldn't really see the lightening. There was so much snow coming down that the lightening was diffused to the point where it was just a blue-ish/white-ish flash of light followed by the "crash".