News U.S. Southeastern Snow disaster Jan 2014

[Urwumpe]

But thanks for the sentiment. I'll try to return it when something untoward happens in your region of the world.

Europe. Superstorms, Hurricanes, Typhoons or blizzards happen to all others. :lol:

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Nope. They're flatlanders, and don't know how to safely drive on ice and snow. :lol: Also, they don't have many chains or snow tires there.

:hmm: Then again, neither do I, but I get more opportunities to learn. Just not this year.

I am also a flatlander (Wolfsburg goes from 65 to 100 meters, thats all of it), but I had the chance to practise a lot during my army time, by simply using the large maintenance area of the barracks to let my car spin during a good winter.

But really... its not that much, the first rule should always apply: Never drive faster than you can control.

 

[Fabri91]

I had been driving through 40 cm snow drifts with all-weather tires back then (now winter tires are mandatory)... chains... in the mountains maybe, but here, it is a waste of time, especially if you have such little bit of snow. You would be killing the pavement with 4 inches of snow and chains.

We currently have 10 cm or 4 inches of snow here. Only the bigger roads are cleared. We had some worse traffic chaos on the first day of snow fall, because many people underestimated the slippery roads. But now its back to normal - every morning 3 km traffic jam on the Autobahn to the Volkswagen plant.

That's what I meant: last year I was merrily plowing through, at times, 25 cm of snow in a winter-tire equipped Ford Focus h:

Is it a particularly nasty, "icy" snow?

Honest question, I don't understand how so little snow can bring everything to a halt.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

It appears to be a horrid blend of black ice disguised by snow, if what I'm reading is correct.
Also, they rarely get snow at all, unlike most of Europe. So they're not used to it.

 

[Donamy]

Some people just don't understand, that the speed limit is relative to the conditions.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Maverick Sawyer is right. I'll save the bulk of the rebuttaling for the Basement thread as I had really intended this one to be about the current state and to tell everyone those affected are ok.

 

[Urwumpe]

It appears to be a horrid blend of black ice disguised by snow, if what I'm reading is correct.

So, it is the normal "Blitzeis" scenario in Germany. Which also causes many crashes, keeps the fire departments busy and still... is nothing so unusual, that you can claim to be unprepared. The last time we had it really badly, I had been driving really slowly, was stuck in a long traffic jam, and had problems starting to drive uphill, because my car always went sideways first.

But compare here, what weather you have right now compared to the next big city to my place:

http://www.worldweathercompare.co.uk/?city1=617&city2=1847

 

[Melvin]

You guys are funny. :rofl:

 

[Codz]

To be fair, it hasn't snowed like this in Atlanta for a few years. It's easy to criticize a group of people for not being able to function well in weather that you may be used to in your climate. To flip the situation, as an Atlanta native, I thought that it was absurd that during the Summer many Seattlites thought that 29 degrees (Celsius) was agonizingly hot. For someone in the Southeastern US, temperatures can regularly top 40 degrees (Celsius) plus humidity. It's all relative to what you're used to.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Another problem on the roads is that there are multitudes that can barely drive on dry pavement, let alone ice/snow.

It's a normal event when someone is driving so close to me that I can't see their headlamps in my rearview mirror. Proper separation is vastly more important when the road condition merits more attentive driving, but too many people don't think too far beyond the front bumper.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

I had that happen to me today, a car just didn't seem to want to stop when I was at a stop sign. There was ice in the general area, though none under either of our wheels fortunately.

 

[Linguofreak]

What happened... SUVs prove to be a big crappy piece of junk when you need offroad capability?

Not so much that as the fact that southern cities tend to have little or no equipment available to salt or plow the roads because they don't get enough winter weather to justify the cost.

 

[Codz]

As I stated earlier, we rarely get large amounts of snow in Atlanta, and it is understandable that the city was unprepared for it. They could have certainly done some things better, but overall there was little to be done in an area like this.

 

[Urwumpe]

As I stated earlier, we rarely get large amounts of snow in Atlanta, and it is understandable that the city was unprepared for it. They could have certainly done some things better, but overall there was little to be done in an area like this.

of course you can do better: Every citizen can think and act better.

How much of a problem is that the road was neither salted or cleared? That just makes it worse, if somebody gets at the control limits of his car and decreases the capacity of the road, so you will get traffic jams sooner. But it does not cause accidents, does not mean that you need 24 hours for a distance that you could walk at -25°C in less than 3 hours, if you have the proper clothing to wear (I doubt that in Atlanta)

 

[Ripley]

Don't know if anyone else has heard about the disaster...

At first I thought you had suffered many casualties...

But really, the only disaster I see here is of political nature, for how badly the city's administration managed this issue.
With today's weather forecasts one cannot say "we didn't expect/know it".

 

[C3PO]

But really, the only disaster I see here is of political nature, for how badly the city's administration managed this issue.
With today's weather forecasts one cannot say "we didn't expect/know it".

IMHO the worst disaster is that that many people think it's someone else's job to make sure that weather has no impact on their life.

 

[Artlav]

So...
Are there really conspiracy theories about this snow in Atlanta being something other than snow (i.e. mind-control chemicals)?

I stumbled across an acutely stupid video on youtube (surprise!) with a claim like that, which have quite a lot of views.

Is it something people in Georgia actually mention, or just a random burp of the internet?

 

[Izack]

So...
Are there really conspiracy theories about this snow in Atlanta being something other than snow (i.e. mind-control chemicals)?

I stumbled across an acutely stupid video on youtube (surprise!) with a claim like that, which have quite a lot of views.

Is it something people in Georgia actually mention, or just a random burp of the internet?

A close friend of mine is utterly convinced of this 'fake snow' thing, and refuted this debunking because 'that person isn't an expert.' My reply of 'and you are?' went ignored. :facepalm:

 

[Urwumpe]

A close friend of mine is utterly convinced of this 'fake snow' thing, and refuted this debunking because 'that person isn't an expert.' My reply of 'and you are?' went ignored. :facepalm:

Wait a minute... the guys that started this conspiracy theory are also no experts at all....

 

[MattBaker]

Wait a minute... the guys that started this conspiracy theory are also no experts at all....

Who cares, burden of proof is on you, right? Right? Right?

This government was literally unable to launch and maintain a healthcare website, you expect them to be able to achieve something in real life? Whoa there.

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Besides you always find some academic (I wonder how they became academics...) who joins you on arguing bullcrap. Yes I'm looking at you Mr Lucke...

 

[Urwumpe]

Besides you always find some academic (I wonder how they became academics...) who joins you on arguing bullcrap. Yes I'm looking at you Mr Lucke...

Come on, he got what he deserved...