SNOW

[pkveazey]

Well, the big snow storm that we were supposed to get was rain for two days and then at 10:00 AM today it started as Sleet and 15 minutes later it was sleet mixed with snow and right now its something that looks like teenie tiny snow but it has covered the ground already. The NOAA Weather says we should get 2 to 3 inches of snow. Well, we will see what we see when we see it.

[Nemo]

I have about 5-6 inches of heavy wet snow on the ground now.  With ongoing light snow to heavy flurries.

The clouds are thinning and sky lightening.

Nemo

[Sir John Honeybucket]

Here in coastal Virginia, along the shore of The Chesapeake Bay; high winds and sideways rain.  Forecast is for temps to drop below freezing for the night, resulting in wet ice on the roads. Naturally, many single car accidents already; radio scanner is very busy: car vs pole, vs ditch... The problem is not really weather conditions, but OPERATOR HEAD SPACE failures while driving. Our deputies and volunteer fire/rescue are a very dedicated crew.

Electrical power flickering a bit, we have filled bathtub sinks &etc. with water incase we lose power to the well.  This augments the jugs of water we always keep on hand. Woodstove is at the ready.

Sir John Honeybucket

[JohnyMac]

i was thinking about you folks this morning as I heard the snow amounts for the Mid-Atlantic states. Would be a great story if thigs go sideways. 

[Nemo]

It has moved to bright blue sunny skies with patchy white clouds.  36 degrees F outside with trees and power lines clearing of white stuff. 
Measured 10 foot triangle on level yard at 3 corners with each within 1/4 inch of 6 inches. 

We had some dozen or so power blinks between about 0830 and 1100, each short enough to not cause tv to shut off.  Tonight will be cold with anticipated temps in upper teens.  Extra blanket night I expect.

Nemo

[JohnyMac]

Nemo,
or extra dog or two. 

[FeedingFreedom]

Here in coastal Virginia, along the shore of The Chesapeake Bay; high winds and sideways rain.  Forecast is for temps to drop below freezing for the night, resulting in wet ice on the roads. Naturally, many single car accidents already; radio scanner is very busy: car vs pole, vs ditch... The problem is not really weather conditions, but OPERATOR HEAD SPACE failures while driving. Our deputies and volunteer fire/rescue are a very dedicated crew.

Electrical power flickering a bit, we have filled bathtub sinks &etc. with water incase we lose power to the well.  This augments the jugs of water we always keep on hand. Woodstove is at the ready.

Sir John Honeybucket

When I lived in VA, they got 7 inches of wet snow, and they shut the city down for 3 days. I didn't hear, so I just drove into work, I even still had snow tires on the car from PA. Boss had a fit when he found out. With no plows, salt, cinders, etc. and the lack of snow driving experience, weather that to us is just a Thursday morning is nearly an apocalyptic event. Stay safe, stay warm, and keep us updated if you can.

[Jackalope]

   We had 3-4 inches from last night's storm.  It didn't really accumulate on the driveway or the main road.  There was enough to make the dogs happy, but enough for me to go sledding.

[pkveazey]

The snow finally ended and we got about 2-1/2". That wouldn't be a problem except I need to take a road trip today where the snow is a foot deep and its out in the country. In Virgtinia, VDOT's Policy is to clear the Interstates first, then the US highways, then the Primary roads and finally, the secondary roads. Since the high today will be at or below freezing, I'm more concerned about Black Ice than the snow. I can't decide which vehicle to take. The light weight front wheel drive Acura or the 4 wheel drive heavy Expedition.

[JohnyMac]

Expedition. You are surrounded with more metal.

According to the news this morning, I 95 through VA and MD this morning is a parking lot, north & south. Some folks have been in the log jam since noon yesterday. I hope they had a survival pack or GOD bag in their vehicle.

Do you?

[Jackalope]

Yeah, I agree with Johny, use the Expedition.  Sunny morning here, but the NWS is now forecasting up to three inches of snow on Thursday.  Oh horrors!  Most of the snow we got yesterday will melt today with temps in the 40's-50's.

[Nemo]

Nemo,
or extra dog or two. 

Snugglie wife.

Nemo   

[pkveazey]

Well, things went well on the road trip. When I went out the front door, I had my mind made up that if there was snow on the road I'd drive the Expedition. Wow! The road was nice and clear. I took the Acura and all the main roads were like taking a Sunday drive. All the car doors were frozen shut and it took about 10 minutes to finally get into the car. No, I didn't do the hot water trick. I just pryed one door open with a Bamboo Back scratcher. THEN, after 70 miles, I turned off onto the country roads that took me the last 7 miles. The first road was a bitch. The second road was pretty nice. The final road was a bitch too. I ended up being glad I took the Acura because it handled the country roads really well as long as I kept my speed around 30 MPH. Also the Acura got 28 MPG and the Expedition only gets 13 MPG. When I got where I was going, there wasn't 12" of snow. It was about 6". Snow is about like catching fish. People always seem to over estimate the size or depth. It was about 21 degrees when I left and it was aboput 34 degrees when I got home. I'm really tired.

[JohnyMac]

All n' all whether you are use to it or not, driving in snow tires ya' out. Probably due to a low or medium level of stress.

Me, I am never worried about my driving abilities in the snow, it is always the other guy/gal's driving abilities I am concerned with.

One thing that I do hate are the folks who literally drive 10 mph on a cleared road after a snowfall with their blinkers on. WTF  When I eventually pass them, if they have a mask on too, ya' have to ask yourself, "If you are so paranoid, why even leave your house?"

[Felix]

"One thing that I do hate are the folks who literally drive 10 mph on a cleared road after a snowfall with their blinkers on. WTF  When I eventually pass them, if they have a mask on too, ya' have to ask yourself, "If you are so paranoid, why even leave your house?" -

Why?
Because it's OK to leave the house IF you are sporting the Fauci Talisman.   Alone.   In your car.   In freezing weather.
The good news for preppers is that rough as it will be on "them", their certain, hapless disappearance from the scene will happen rather quickly.    As "quick" compliments "merciful" in my book I applaud the way Mother Nature will attend to business.
No heartless bastards here.   Just good people competent enough to count seats in the life boat and understand what it means when a boat like the Titanic sinks.

[JohnyMac]

Felix 

[Nemo]

In case you all don't know, its a good thing to keep some supplies in your vehicles.  A blanket or 2 is good also.

Click link to read.  It has pics.

Nemo

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/virginia-i-95-traffic-jam-better-preparedness-unexpected

Weather
Published 55 mins ago
Virginia's snowy I-95 traffic jam invites call for better preparedness for the unexpected
Some drivers were trapped in traffic for more than 24 hours on Interstate 95
By Michael Ruiz FOXBusiness

Increased spending on public health preparedness and drilling for potential disaster response scenarios could help states like Virginia handle the next "unprecedented" storm or other calamity, according one expert.

"In public health, we don't often think about the interstate as something other than a place where maybe there's accidents and injuries that happen," said Megan Latshaw, associate scientist in Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "We do talk in public health about what we call all hazards preparedness. So that means, we're ready for anything."

State officials described the storm that swept through Northern Virginia on Monday as "unprecedented." It dropped about 10 inches of snow in some areas and temperatures plunged into the teens. During a conference call with reporters Tuesday afternoon, Transportation Commissioner Stephen Birch said that a cycle of rain before snow had thwarted preemptive efforts like pretreating the roads, due to concerns the rain would just wash the ice melt away.

To prepare for something unexpected like that, Latshaw told FOX Business Tuesday, municipalities should treat public health and infrastructure spending "like the military" and routinely drill on potential disaster response situations.

"The money needs to be there all the time no matter what," she said. "Because what happens is we ramp up to respond to things, and then we have to ramp that down and lay people off or move them over to two different projects."

State police said Tuesday evening that despite the chaos, they had received no reports of deaths, injuries or serious accidents.

"It's a little mind-boggling, if you think about there was no access to water, there was no access to food," Latshaw said. "There was no heat. There was no sanitation like places to relieve yourself or even wash your hands. There was no access to health care. It sounds like you're not in the United States."

Some drivers reported spending 15 hours or more trapped in traffic, including sitting U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who said it took him 27 hours to travel the 110 miles between Richmond and Washington.

"Every time there's an emergency, a public health emergency, everybody in the country rushes to say, we need funding for that: We need funding for COVID, we need funding for a goal, we need funding for the funds," Latshaw said. "But then as soon as the emergency abates, then everybody says, 'OK, now we're going to put that funding somewhere else.'"

By Tuesday evening, authorities said the jams had cleared out and plows were still working to remove snow.

Latshaw also said looking at innovative ways to design new infrastructure could improve public health. For example: designing new neighborhoods with walkable sidewalks.

[Nemo]

And how to do it.  Critique please.

Nemo

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/how-pack-go-bag-ahead-emergency

[pkveazey]

I read the news report insert and laughed and laughed and laughed. I worked for VDOT for 30 years. I started at the very bottom and eventually made it to Traffic Engineer. Its funny to read things like VDOT should have preparedness drills. Well, guess what..... They do have snow and ice drills every year. The problem with I-95 from Washington to Richmond is massive traffic jams every day and the snow thing just makes a bad thing worse. Hmmmmm..... If you get stuck in a traffic jam in Northern Virginia on I-95, you just get off at the next exit and take the back roads and side roads to get around it. Gee, I wonder how crowded US Route 1 was that parallels I-95 all the way to Richmond. Yea, I know, Route 1 gets really crowded also. Then its time to take the country roads. I'd drive 50 miles out of my way to avoid the DC traffic even on a good day.

[Nemo]

Wife's dad and G'dad built 66 from the beltway to Gainesville.  2 lanes each way with a nice wide median.  They would grudgingly admit they had some help though.

I would not have gone that way that day at all, no way, no how.  Unless I was in an Abrams.

Nemo

[pkveazey]

Wife's dad and G'dad built 66 from the beltway to Gainesville.  2 lanes each way with a nice wide median.  They would grudgingly admit they had some help though.

I would not have gone that way that day at all, no way, no how.  Unless I was in an Abrams.

Nemo

Oh, Hell no!! You shouldn't have mentioned I-66. My counterpart in Traffic and Safety Division had the I-66 project and most of his work involved the Closed Circuit TV camera system. Since I was into radio and electronics and he wasn't, I asked him if I could see the Special Provisions regarding the CCTV specs. Basically it was Camera with signal amplifier and Coaxial Cable from camera location to camera location for 16 miles. The Coaxial Cable had to be pulled through Conduit from location to location. Hmmmm....... There were bends at each Junction box and those bends were 90 degrees in and another 90 degrees out. The Consultant who drew up the plans and specs called for HARDLINE COAX and HELICAL FLEXIBLE HARDLINE COAX. UH OH..... How do you pull a several thousand foot run of Hardline through a curved Conduit? I don't think so. Anyway, I pointed out what Hardline was and what Helical Flexible Hardline was to him and he suggested we take the problem to our Section Head. I sat down and did the line loss calculations per 100 feet for dropping the hardline and just using the Helical Flexible Hardline and it came out barely workable, maybe, on a good day, as long as the signal amplifiers worked perfectly. The Section Head called the Consultant and chewed them a new ass for not knowing that hardline couldn't be pulled through curved conduit. We dropped the hardline and called for all fexible hardline. If I hadn't read those specs and done the calculations, somebody would have had to eat 16 miles of unuseable hardline. Well, my change must have worked because the CCTV system is up and still working.