Meh,It's my fault that we're gonna get this snow storm.

@baqui63 No confusion; I appreciate a future goat taking preemptive blame here.

@narfcake @baqui63 - we can always make this happen for next month!

@luvche21 No

@cranky1950 for Goat February 2017!!!

@f00l I would be gleefully watching what the ‘weather reporters’ are doing tonight, except I’m not watching TV any more.

@compunaut

Oooooh, hoping we get just enuf snow that schools and the city close. The big businesses tend to follow, and people get very creative in quickly designed sleds. I like the cardboard ones myself.

Makes for a fun day.

@f00l ice here predicted

@Kidsandliz No here ice predicted, or
no ice predicted here (whichever preferred).
But wind chill will be as low as 13degF

@compunaut

Wind chill is why I want everything to closed. Also that people here cannot drive safely if even a single snowflake falls.

@f00l I love when a reporter here actually sees/films an actual snowflake - they get so excited it’s like they won Powerball

@f00l Well around here I am not so sure we have much in the way of snowplows (snow on Saturday) and salt trucks (ice Friday) as it only snows about once every 5 years, although ice is a bit more frequent. Here the idiots believe that snow and/or ice means go faster to get out of it faster and tailgate since that might cause who ever is blocking your way to go faster too. I am thinking of cornering the market on bubble wrap and bubble wrap the car before I go out.

Actually I’d not drive tomorrow either but I have no choice. I have to take a 3 year old to a specialist apt at 2:30 (so likely to hit the ice on the way home - looking at taking the long way via residential streets) and it is hard to reschedule that in a timely manner due to this person being the only one in the state who knows much about this disease.

@Kidsandliz Positive thoughts headed your way - for driver, patient, and doc

@compunaut

I actually kinda get excited. Try sometimes too cool to show it.

I have been accused of being a permanent child.

![@compunaut Thanks. Nothing acute with the child - genetic disease Alpha Thalassemia - hemoglobin H version. He would have been OK had the daddy not also carried a version of this and so ended up a 3 deletion kid. So far so good with him though, despite a low hemoglobin and a bit of stunted growth. Right now all he needs is monitoring. Here he is pretending to be a cat. LOL

No idea why it is importing not right side up when it is right side up on my desktop. Needs to be rotated counterclockwise 90 degrees.

@Kidsandliz

In n central Tx we don’t have snow plows. I have never seen it snow more than 3-4 inches here. Even that is extreme. Most years it’s no snow, or a few dustings, or perhaps 1 inch. And they don’t use salt - they use sand.

The best part is that the County bought these machines that scrape the ice right off bridges. So within a day or two of anything that causes bridges to ice, almost all of them are clear.

Hope it’s not too bad there. I hate driving on ice. The very worst is an ice storm followed by a snow storm.

• no precip for us this am. Just cold and windy.

@f00l they are predicting 7-12 inches in our region for Sat, ending Sat, and a local college has already cancelled classes Monday without a single drop having fallen yet. I love the South.
Up North we’d get inches of snow already fallen overnight with more predicted all day and we’d still have school it seemed. My mom hypothesized our school district superintendent thought that’s what bus chains and teachers w 4WD were for.

@mollama

In the south, no one knows how to drive on snow and ice nor even thru snow flurries. They have to close everything or else have incredible #'s of wrecks and stuck vehicles in 24 hours.

During the big snow/ice storm sequence of February 2011 (which screwed up Jerry Jones’ super bowl), the wait time for a tow truck was pushing 24 hours (even with schools and most businesses having been closed for days). And the wait time for police or fire for non-life-threatening events could be hours at times.

That’s why they close everything at the first glimpse of frozen precipitation in the south.

@f00l I fully agree on the why, I am just always amazed at how early the panic begins: not a drop had fallen, something weird could happen and it could stay rain or melt on Sunday (not likely, temp predictions are a high of 29 for Sun), but they aren’t waiting to see. Last year there was a flurry one night and schools/businesses started calling in closures for the next day, but “something weird happened” and the snow was melted by 9 am, yet instead of a 2 hr delay, my kids got a day off they had to then make-up later in the year. I much prefer inconvenient closures to any kind of accidents, and waiting too long for “all the data” is not helpful in planning, but It is just is way too early to call a closure for Monday.
/image Southern Snow Panic

@mollama
N Central Texas. Snowing now. Barely sticking. Hello traffic disaster.

@f00l Are you in the south with me??

@f00l

@mehbee

DFW area. We had perhaps 5-8 hours of flurries and v light snow yesterday depending on location. Mostly didn’t stick and blew away immediately but there were a few small frozen patches here and there. The roads and bridges I drove were all dry. Which didn’t stop the wrecks. Sigh.

A friend drove from FW to Dallas to 100 miles east of D and back after most of the wrecks - what, 7-8 wrecks spread all along the way had been cleared off 1183/121 and the wrecks on other freeways had been cleared and traffic had started to flow. He reported exactly 1 ice patch of perhaps 100 feet and a very few small ones. He had been out on the roads all day and had zero probs except for other drivers acting insane. Since the temp was way below freezing all day, and the roads and bridges were almost completely dry, and no one had made ice removal attempts yet there was very little ice, why do people have these wrecks?

Do they tense up and overcompensate? Is someone trying to drive at 30mph to be safe (there was all the visibility one could want) and then other drivers trying to get past become reckless? I understand the wrecks when it’s icy. The insane # of wrecks when the roads are dry mystify me.

The surface streets were mostly just fine.

@speediedelivery TShirt weather today. Shorts weather yesterday. Howdy from Texas.

@moondrake I wore sandals in the snow - does that count?

It was sort of by accident - left MS when it was 75 and filled up with gas in IL where there was snow while still wearing my sandals. Oops.

@moondrake In about a million years if I get to retire maybe we can be neighbors. My parents moved to southern NM when they retired. I love the area and the climate suits me better. I looked at transferring out that way but it did not look like a good career move.

@speediedelivery Yeah, this isn’t really the land of opportunity. But it is a great place to retire.

@moondrake
Re your weather forecast. STFU. Except that you are entitled to gloat.

It’s Texas here too. And given the wind, much colder than I would like.

@f00l Yeah, wind is our bane. Santa brought a nasty windstorm for Christmas that tore down my carport, followed by several days of highly unseasonal rain and hail, and my poor car was out there shivering and crying as it’s never been left in the weather in its own driveway. I ordered a metal carport but it won’t come for another week. Fortunately it’s supposed to be sunny and 70s till then.

@moondrake What material was your old carport?
/image Harbor Freight carport

@moondrake I had been thinking about buying one of those once when the house I lived in had no garage. I was worried that it would be destroyed, like yours was, in a wind or hail storm.

I now park in a parking lot and my assigned spot is right by the dumpster where the lid usually is not down. When there is predicted nasty weather I go hide in the parking garage across and a block down the street at the hospital (free fortunately). Was saved once from having it look like a golf ball doing that. I, on the other hand, tore up an umbrella the last 100 feet walking home. Umbrellas are not good hail protection! I needed to have been wearing a helmet.

Once in Germany we were above the tree line when a nasty hail storm with thunder and lightening blew through (when it reached Munich it did several million dollars in damage). We all wore our rock climbing helmets and instead of crouching on our backpacks some of us put them on and crouched over to try to have them take the brunt of the hail (of course then that just increased risk of ground current from lightening strikes).

@f00l Still in the 40’s here till tomorrow nite, then the front is supposed to come through. Hope I get back to Charlotte before it hits.

@compunaut My frame was sturdier than the Harbor Freight one, and was top only. A fully enclosed one like that would get torn up even faster as the wind wouldn’t have a way to get past it. I sold my frame for $50 on Craigslist to a lady that’s going to make a greenhouse out of it. She’s further from the mountain so she gets flat wind instead of the focused wind I get.

@baqui63 You can pretty much bet tomorrow is gonna be all snow hype all day.
So be proactive get your bread and milk now.

@cranky1950 Eh… I’ve got food here for several weeks… really longer tho it would be a bit boring after a while.

@baqui63 Yeah, turned out to be about 2 inches and the damn roads were perfectly fine. I got up 20 minutes early for this?

@lordbowen We once got snowed in for 8 days. Blowing wind kept re-covering plowed roads. No gas, food, anything delivery. Not sure why (small college town of 3000 plus university) but there was a run on gasoline at the 3 gas stations - like where exactly did they think they were going to drive to? Even 4 wheel drive wasn’t going to make it through 4’ of snow (got that in a day and a half) plus wind blown drifts higher than my head. Food only started running out at the two grocery stores about day 7. Sledding down the main road hill - it was a blast.

Got snow in Oklahoma (a rarity, I lived just south of Norman) and I was one of the few with a sled. Several actually. Flat there so we went to a highway off ramp. Tons of kids sledding there - laundry baskets (don’t work well), car hood (works pretty well), plastic sheets, pieces of cardboard, trays, etc. and our three sleds. My daughter was suddenly very popular. LOL. The cops did not run everyone off and actually stood guard against off ramp speeders. Magic.

@lordbowen

Wow. Lots! Where are you?

@Kidsandliz Nah, I’ve got to go to Wally’s for a cabbage saurkraut yellow peas, a hunk of salt and some pork ribs.

@f00l Southern Oregon. Schools closed for three days. Bus service shut down temporarily too. Been cold and clear since the snow fell; almost all of it still here. Rains return tomorrow…we’ll see how messy the roads get. The local ski resort is quite happy though. Overall, folks have been coping quite well.

Oh, and my mail was delivered without interruption. They take their motto seriously. Love them.

@purrfctangel Where do you live? Though I live in PA, I work in Salem, NJ. Headed to my buddy’s in Hainesport tomorrow, than off to NY and VT for some skiing.

@cinoclav I live in Vineland and work in Voorhees. We’re practically neighbors!

@Kidsandliz I know what you mean…

A couple of years ago, NYC decided to keep schools open even though there was a good chance of really bad snow from late morning on. Was a real mess and IIRC several weather related injuries of school kids. Since then, they tend to act a bit panicked if there is any chance of bad weather at all, sending text messages and emails that are almost hilarious. For example, did you know that 40 MPH winds can cause flying debris?

(Closing schools really fucks with things here since many people count on the schools and after school programs so they can work. Also, federal and other funding.)

@baqui63 40mph? Oh my I wouldn’t have guessed LOL. I can tell you first hand 70+mph causes flying trash cans and the rain turns into knives…that would be when we were camping on the ocean on the outer banks in the tail end of a hurricane back when they were not media events for days and warnings were few and far between. We evacuated from there in the middle of the night when the tent top of the camper ripped off and the pull out beds were going up and down and back and forth at the same time. Decamped to an all night IHOP and froze our asses off since were were soaked and their A/C was on full blast. Back later in the morning to the campground and lost our kites flying them. So had to content ourselves with swinging on the swings that normally were far from the water but now had a foot of water under them, then jumping off into on coming waves. Probably dangerous but then back then parents were not wrapping kids in bubble wrap. We lived and had a great story to tell in the back to school “on my summer vacation I saw aliens…only our story was true”. LOL

Just came back from the grocery store to buy milk, bread and bananas - oh my people are wiping out the shelves of bottled water and other staples. Seriously? (Of course we are having a “media event” over all this - must be a slow news day from their point of view, not even really hearing about the shootings at the airport that are going on right now - for that you need the internet and NPR, not local TV) It is supposed to be 70 next Wednesday and sunny all weekend. So it is sleeting now, snow tonight… big whip. I hope we get enough to cross country ski with. That would blow a few minds if I cross country skied past the hospital and campus (med school, etc.). I even know where my poor, lonely seldom used skis are in the storage unit.

@Kidsandliz Probably didn’t buy any salt…

@compunaut here they salted all the roads but it’s been raining since 4pm so most of the salt has been carried away. Sleet started about 6. It’s ucky out there. Salt works ok if it snow right away.

@compunaut That sounds about right for this town. I believe most of our last couple of mayors have been convicted of various crimes such as personal use of city funds, sexual harassment, one decided to knock down a yet to be convicted drug dealer’s house so gathered a posse and proceeded to knock down the front wall of the neighbor’s house, corruption is apparently part of the job description… LOL

@compunaut The stacks are still closed with no additional rain or sleet or snow since they closed it yesterday. I think you are exactly right - have the salt trucks, did not buy any salt. LOL

@f00l Better build a bonfire in you living room…

@Kidsandliz

in the 70s next week. Will huddle till then.

@f00l Get cats. They are little radiators. A bit noisy as radiators but they work well.

@f00l Hey Friday nite wrecks every 2 miles are normal. Plus everyone got oiled up early cuz the snuck out of work for the storm.

@cranky1950 The cold spell following the storm isn’t going to help either. We usually just wait until it melts.

@cranky1950

Yeah I would skip the ice storms if I could. Hate them. And each time you lose a lot of trees and power lines.

Used to just go out as if it were a normal day and gut it out somehow. Finally thought better of that. Hasn’t happened to me yet, but a lost day is not worth a lost car.

Does Atlanta use those machines that get the ice off bridges?

@f00l I’m in Charlotte for the weekend, Atlanta got it worse than we did and it’s colder there. I’ll probably stay here till Monday and go back in the afternoon. Tried to talk mrs cranky into going to Charleston or Savanah for the weekrend but she wouldn’t go for it.

@sammydog01 Yeah, in 2004 the whole place was shutdown for 2 weeks with no electricity, people lost salt water aquariums and stuff.

@cranky1950 Went outside at 4am and heard a growl, there was a possum sitting on my rocking chair. It jumped off the porch and skulked out of sight growling all the way. Guess I’m not the only cranky one here.

@Kidsandliz I’m not sure storing salt is a practical endeavor long-term like the deep south would have to do. Rain and environmental humidity would likely take a toll.

@jbartus Well they did claim today they salted but then it was “rained away”. You can tell the report had grown up in the south as the obvious question was not asked, “so when you had to shut the highway because of the ice on the bridge it did not occur to you to come back and salt it again?”. Clearly no one here is aware of how this works LOL

And by storing, I meant buy enough for the few ice storms we get each winter and store that - not store a hoard. I see the mountains of the stuff stored along the western PA turnpike in the winter so I am not sure why they can’t at least store some in a building here.

@mfladd Virginia Beach may still be closed on Monday.

@sammydog01 They’ll probably be closed monday and they’ll probably have black ice all day

@mfladd A friend in VB just called to tell me they’re snowed in solidly. They’ve shoveled around their doors so the dogs can go out, but otherwise it’s all very peaceful. Primary roads and interstates may get plowed and salted tomorrow, but I’m betting the bases will be granting liberal leave for nonessential personnel on Monday. Especially if it continues to accumulate tomorrow.

@mfladd Yes I just saw on TV that Virginia Beach has like 8" of snow and nothing to remove it with. I used to live in the Hampton Roads area and that sounds about right. Usually it rains there, sleets in Newport News (a bit north) and snows in Williamsburg (a bit more north). Watch out as the fools down there don’t know how to drive in anything other than rain and water from high tide spilled on to the roads (some of that area is going to be in trouble shortly after New Orleans with respect to rising oceans and permanent flooding).

@Kidsandliz oooo…you are so right about no one knowing how to drive in it here. You always see cars here off the side of the road.

@Kidsandliz NAVSTA Norfolk was built on fill land. The seawalls get reinforced regularly. Just truck in more fill; it’ll get piled higher and deeper.

@OldCatLady I thought some of that - since it is on Willoughby Spit - was on the sandbar an old hurricane created. I know the end of the spit by the bridge tunnel was created from that… Not the better part of brains though to build on temporary land and primary sand dunes… what a hurricane builds a hurricane can take away.

@cranky1950 When I lived in northern Idaho they didn’t use salt. I am not sure what chemical they used but it sure didn’t do much good. They also used cinders which sort of helped although I discovered the hard way that when you pick up snow that has cinders mixed in to clean the windshield off it scratches the windshield. Maybe they just didn’t use enough cinders. Never lived in a place where they used sand.

When I lived there I could never make it up the road to my house in icy conditions regardless of what they used and had to walk several blocks up the hill each time it was too icy. Going down the back side of the hill past the junior high we basically slid down that hill - safer to go that way when going down since there was no light at the bottom of the hill like the other side had, although the hill was a bit steeper on that side.

@Kidsandliz my town used salted sand on hills and put sand barrels out all over town where people tended to get stuck, then collected them in the spring.

@Pamtha I live in central VA too- my friend down the street is making snowgaritas.

@Kidsandliz

It’s very sad. So much shoveling and a frigid 69F.

@f00l and @Kidsandliz

I forgive you both for this. Maybe. I just shoveled a foot of snow off the back deck, this morning, since we are having the ONE official day above freezing before we plunge back into the deep freeze. The predicted high for Thursday is 8. Yep, eight degrees Fahrenheit. I spent this afternoon shoveling my driveway (I’m about half done), and also shoveled around the (shared with 11 others, but on my property) mailbox, because I’m a kind and generous soul.

More snow is predicted tomorrow. Yay.

I still need to finish the driveway, not because I plan on going anywhere, but because it needs doing. Believe it or not, I live where the winters are moderate. I’ve seen years where we had occasional dips below freezing. Every 8-10 years we get this instead. I suppose we were due.

@Shrdlu I think you might want one of these:
/image snow joe snowblower

@Shrdlu

I have shoveled snow in my life, in NYC and Boston. Perhaps nothing near your area to cover, but the city snowplows had left the snow in front of my building and on top of my car at a height of more than 7’ and width of a car plus a sidewalk. But I was young. And new to shoveling snow. And found it kinda charming - the first time. Not so much, the second time.

No machines to do this? If we had that kind of snow here, every Texan would have a snow-blower. Only partially due to laziness. It’s a cultural thing - we like machines.

You have my empathy. Don’t twist an ankle or anything.

@f00l It is 57 here in MS. Due to be 70 or so on Wed.

@Shrdlu I have a snow blower for sale. Should have sold it when I lived in northern ID, instead stupidly hauled it south with me to MS. Surprisingly was able to sell my chains here though.

@Kidsandliz

Perhaps in MS you could market the snowblower as a “genuine antique decorative novelty Northern garage curio” and list it in the antiques section of Craigslist.

I bet there’s someone around who wants one just to have one.

@Kidsandliz Maybe you should move back North somewhere; you’re mostly ready

@sammydog01 Where? It was 76degF in NTx today…

@compunaut Central Virginia. Don’t worry- it’s gonna be 51 tomorrow and 67 on Thursday. Bye bye, kids!