Thunder Sleet

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:50 pm

Well mother nature decided to show who's running the show. Saturday we had a high of near 60°. The arctic front started pushing through early evening. Yesterday we had 1.5" of rain slowly converted to sleet once the temp dropped below 30°. We we 30° by 10pm last night waking up to low 20°s. Followed by more sleet. We were completely covered this morning from all the sleet.

Close to 1" thick where I'm at. The bad part about the freezing rain and sleet is that it takes the power lines down. Not suppose to get above freezing till noon Tuesday. Schools got canceled which was good for this area. Most of the drivers around here do NOT know how to drive on Ice. Most front wheel drive cars can get going pretty easy if your light on the gas but forget they have to stop. They hit the brakes like they would on dry pavement and then start sliding out of control. Most that are causing the problems hit the brakes soon as they hit the icy patches.

Which is the last thing you want to do.

This area of the country is not setup with equipment to remove snow and ice. In the past years all they had was sand mixed with some salt. Now they have been trying out pre-treating the roads with a salt spray before the storm hits. They only treated the bridges and over passes. This is suppose to reduce the freezing temp to around 28°. I watched them spraying the solution. They were not putting enough out to cover the road, just strings about 10# apart. My guess is this did no good since we had all the rain before it started converting to ice.

My plans for the next couple of days is stay inside where it warm

Coach1 · Post by **Coach1** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:09 pm

Hope you have essential supplies on hand to last the duration.

This has been a strange and bad winter for most of us in the southern
states who typically only face a few bad winter days each season.
The ground hogs around here got it wrong for sure. It looks to me
like another 4 weeks of winter weather for NC.

I have my car on jackstands in the garage with the wheels off
and drive shaft removed. It will stay that way until the weather
warms up - to the upper 40's at least. I am way too old to work in a freezing
cold garage.

I hope your power stays up. Keep warm, buddy.
Coach

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:28 pm

Man, winter has been brutal again this year. In Michigan we have had some snow, but not as bad as the east coast and places. Most of the snow goes south of us. We have been pounded with below normal temps though, and it seems unrelenting. Being within the arctic cold the temps are cold, of course, but we have been getting plenty of sunshine. I'd rather have cold and sunny then mild ad snow.

charlesb · Post by **charlesb** » Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:40 pm

We've even got freezing rain down here in West Texas!

ruger22 · Post by **ruger22** » Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:42 pm

Nothing but flurries this winter, until 10 days ago. We just got (Saturday) our second 7 inch snowfall in a week. Temps won't rise enough to melt much. 21 outside now. Chance of light snow next two days, I'm hoping so light I can't see it. Makes my bus driving job a major PITA, and I'm tired of shoveling.

VA normally gets two or three 3-4 inch snowfalls each year, so two 7 inchers is too much. Last year we got 14 in one shot mid January, and only flurries the rest of winter.

3 1/2 weeks 'til Spring (?)

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:03 am

We made it to 36ºF yesterday and most of the ice melted. Now they are forecasting 2-4" snow in my area this morning. So far all we have gotten is rain with the temp at freezing 32ºF. Roads are at least drivable now.

Weather forecaster around here do not have a very good record at forecasting snow. There only right about 10% of the time. Our best snow fall happens when they don't think were going to get any at all.

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed Feb 25, 2015 5:53 pm

Forecasters missed the snow fall, only about 1/2" this morning. By mid afternoon the temp was up in the 50's so all the ice is melted and gone. Now there forecasting another arctic front for tomorrow morning with a chance of snow Friday.....

I talked to my dad and they got 5" of snow. He's about 130 mi east of me and a little south. Git here Thursday and there was snow still on the ground and roads.

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:11 pm

DFW got hit hard this time. Caught most off guard. 2-4" in my area.

charlesb · Post by **charlesb** » Fri Feb 27, 2015 10:36 pm

We're getting freezing fog here in west Texas... Little 1/4 -1/2" spikes growing on the edges of holly leaves, and anything else with an edge. Millions of them that make trees look fuzzy and white.

My motorcycle looks like it's been the victim of a fungus attack, it has little ice spikes all over it.

They look deadly, but are really very delicate and crumble at any touch.

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 3:18 am

That sounds down right warm....

We hit 18* that's the warmest we have seen in a couple weeks. Oh it was -10 when I got home from work this morning.

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 1:37 pm

Talking to my brother who lives on the south side of Dallas, Grand Prairie, said they got hit with some freezing rain. Had over 1/4" of ice on the cars. I'm stuck in east Texas at my dad's place. They missed it this go around.

Coach1 · Post by **Coach1** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 12:12 pm

Hey Charles...
"... freezing fog.." That sounds interesting to me. I have never experienced that.
It might be a cool experience (pardon the awful pin) as long as it was short-lived.

Coach

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Sun Mar 01, 2015 6:28 pm

Freezing fog is bad. It collects on anything and builds up. Depending upon the road temp you end up with Black Ice...... NOT GOOD.

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 4:48 pm

its fun listenen to folks in the normally warmer climates complain about a little snow and ice......

I went SCUBA diving 2 weeks ago and had to use a chainsaw to cut hole through the 12" of Ice... and the water was 20 degrees warmer than the air temp.

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:41 pm

Not complaining for I did not have to get out on it. Though I know how to drive on this stuff. The biggest thing around here is that 98% do not know how to drive on this stuff. Snow is easy to drive on. Ice is all together different. It's all the others out there you have to be aware of. Soon as I see some one hit their brakes when they realize their on icy roads I either back way off or get by them. As you know hitting your brakes when your on ice normally does not go well. Since most of the cars are front wheel drive they think it's not bad (easy to get moving) ...... till they find out they have to stop. This is particularly true with All wheel drive and traction control systems.

Now you add to the mix that the cities and state do not have the needed equipment to clear the roads like you do in the north. So they try there best to keep the over passes from icing. While all of the support road ways are not touched.

F1 race cars proved this technology works very well. So good as the drivers went full throttle and let the traction control do the controlling. F1 finally removed the traction control from the cars so drivers had to control their car, not some computer. You should have see the first race on wet roads when they removed this technology. They were spinning out all over the place.

As you know this weather made national news, for this are normally averages 50°F weather this time of years.