Random snow day post
DMZ · December 18, 2008 at 10:47 am · Filed Under Mariners
My commute runs ~4 miles. I take the bus. On the way in early this morning (I had a presentation to give to a bunch of execs, who generally drive huge SUVs and come in on snow days) I saw five crashed or stranded Metro buses, and a dozen stranded/crashed cars including the highlight of my morning, a red Camaro someone managed to put head-first into a concrete bus shelter.
Good times.
For all the skiing we do Seattlites can’t drive worth a darn in the snow. It doesn’t help that we don’t have a fleet of salt/sand trucks but the ineptitude of Seattle drivers shocks me.
The only good thing about leaving the Northwest and living in MI and Ithaca, NY for a number of years was the winter driving skills I picked up.
Try living in California where people freak out about driving in the rain…
Welcome to the Snowpocalypse!
I can walk to work if needs be, but I was out early enough to score a bus
I discovered that on my first trip to SoCal, when I was trying to get back to the airport in the rental to get my flight home, and the freeway began crawling as it rained. a little.
You combine wet snow, lack of driving experience with all-season non-traction tires and a neurasthenic plowing and sanding force, I think Seattle actually does pretty well in these occasional storms.
[signed] 50 years in the sub-arctic before retiring to these balmy climes
ooh, it’s “a vigorous Convergence Zone” at the bottom of all this.
and a naive belief in the Power of the SUV
I’m not sure there actually IS a plowing and sanding force. Maybe a couple of guys with buckets.
spokane area here. we got pounded. still snowing actually. 24 inches in less than 24 hours so far.
working remote from home today. ah well.
stay safe everybody.
GLOBAL WARMING…sheesh!!!
I want to see pictures! Did you pull out the cell phone and snap a few photos? Post-em if you got-em!
Are the guys with buckets the same crew I saw huddled up doing nothing while two of the three lanes of the 405 were shut down last month?
I gave up on the bus after an hour of waiting, and it’s still snowing pretty hard here.
I tried to post about this in another thread, but [deleted, metacommentary]
My mom called me and said it took 2.5 hours to get from Totem Lake to Bothell.
Of course, I was upset because the basement door was locked and couldn’t pour over some spreadsheets.
The one nice thing about winter driving here in Denver are the dozens of giant plow/sanding trucks out and about.
Someone moderated a moderator?! *gasp*
Since this is USS Mariner, can we somehow blame this snow on Carlos Silva? Please?
Carlos Silva is the cause of Climate Change.
Discuss.
He’s increasing the gravitational pull from the Sun on the Earth, thus bringing us closer and making things hotter.
Tsk tsk…Camaros and their drivers.
If I put Carlos Silva in the back of my 4×4 pickup, it would be unstoppable! Who needs sandbags? Ooooh…new nickname?
OTOH, maybe I’d never get it moving.
I’ve been to Seattle in the rain, and while Seattle drivers don’t freak out when it rains, they’re still not good at it. The spinning of wheels at intersections was terrible.
People – less gas. If you give it more gas, the tires slip and you won’t go anywhere. Static friction is stronger than kinetic friction.
What do they teach in schools these days?
Jeff – you might have a point there. If it gets warmer in Seattle when Carlos Silva is there, but gets colder when he is in Venezuela (which as of right now is closer to the sun than us), there is a definite correlation there.
Also, as Silva gained weight, proponents of global warming started talking more about the issues. So, if he has lost some weight, are we in for a colder winter because of Silva?
You need to put a few Silva’s around your car so in case you hit anything the soft underbelly of Mr. Silva will protect you and your vehicle.
All I know is this is the first time I can remember snow in April and December of the same calendar year.
I’m totally ready to blame Silva, along with my lost bike when I was 14 years old.
A man of Silva’s…girth, must consume some not-so-pleasant foodstuffs. This, as we all know, produces an excess of gas in the digestive system. Said gas must eventually be dispelled. That, my friends, is a whole lot of methane being released into the upper atmosphere. This methane raises the temperature of the earth causing snow and s***** driving conditions during our rush hour commute.
Ah, SUVs. Remember: Four wheel drive is great at getting you to go, but you stop the same as everyone else.
I do just fine in my little front wheel drive Saturn. If it can’t get there, then I shouldn’t be out on the road anyway.
Anyone here from Spokane?
I’ve lived here most of my life, but I’ve NEVER seen anything like this. 18 inches in 24 hours. Yesterday morning my front walk was clear – now I can’t shovel the snow fast enough.
And it is still coming down. Stunning.
Clearly, this weather is caused by the lack of cohesive M’s clubhouse with the losses of “cement feet” Raul and “thunderstruck” JJ.
Blame this all on Dr. Zoinks
I decided to stay home today. I’m glad I did, nothing would be worse than getting stuck in Bellevue if they cancelled my bus route.
Busses were crashed? I drove 400 miles on white ice over the weekend and I was getting passed by log trucks pulling full loads at 60. An inch of snow and KC Metro drivers are crashing busses? Unbelievable.
well, not driver’s training.
[ 🙂 ]
speaking of girth, Paul Lukas of Uniwatch has a page 2 piece calculating the number of pinstripes it will take to cover CC.
you would think people would realize – hey, i should go slower in the snow, perhaps my tires won’t get good traction – but they don’t. If you just can’t avoid going out – drive on level areas and drive slow people and to all those who break last second – STOP IT!!! lol.
I lived in Pullman for 4 years – saw a ton of snow in my time there and ventured up to Spokane often. Started snowing like crazy one weekend in spokane so I headed home early but still had to stop to put on the chains – first time putting on chains in a snowstorm – that worst case they always talk about, lol.
Basic science is directly applicable to driving.
You want photos I’m processing photos…
I donned the XC skis this morning after not wanting to commmute AGAIN in this stuff (yesterday I was concerned about getting stuck at work). It’s baaaaaaaaaad down here in Oly – this is a sample.
They closed Ft. Lewis and told the U.S. Army not to show up for work yesterday. Yet — my government office building further down I-5 and deeper in the muck and mier was wide, wide open…
oh, yay.
Jeff Nelson is putting in his 2 cents while driving his family over the pass, so if you are on the road from Shelton through I-90, watch out for a giant Hummer being driven by a distracted driver.
Jeff thinks they need to get rid of Beltre, get younger, and start playing as a team.
and the base commander just came off years in Alaska, I hear….
I once was at a conference at a large hotel complex in San Diego. One day, it rained. I wanted to get a cup of real coffee, and they had an espresso cart with an umbrella outside but it was closed, so I asked at the desk and was told that there was no espresso because it rained.
Man, if that was true in Seattle, we’d all be a lot wealthier!
Here’s a pic of the snow from earlier today for those who need a visual.
By the way, I saw a guy walking around in shorts and t-shirt this morning!
I live in Coeur d’ Alene, ID, about 30 miles east of Spokane. We shattered the 24 hour accumulation record. The old record was 16″. From 7:30am Wednesday to 7:30am Thursday we accumulated over 25″ of snow. I just took a break from shoveling since 9am (the plows refuse to come down my rural street, I guess) to check some Mariner news. If you want pictures of the area check out KHQ
I was once in California, on the freeway in my rental car, when I suddenly realized something was deeply, deeply wrong. My usual California freeway experience was to find myself driving bumper-to-bumper at 75 mph, terrified that some unexpected problem would put me in the middle of one of those 90 car pile-ups. But this time I was in the left lane, driving at what felt like a comfortable speed, passing a mass of cars on my right. Then I realized it was raining, and I was driving my normal Seattle rain speed, and everyone else was cowering in the slow lanes. On the radio they had public service announcements “Remember, stopping distance increases in the rain…. If you haven’t used your windshield wipers in a while, you may find they need to be replaced.”
BTW, Seattle does have sand/plow trucks (you can thank Charlie Chong for that). A decade ago that wasn’t the case, the city had to wait for King County to get done with theirs before they could borrow them. Usually it melted first. That changed after the ’96 blizzard. As bad as it is now, it used to be worse. (I still remember fondly the ’91 storm, when the high-rise bridges at either end of 520 iced over and cars were able to get down onto the mid-span but then found themselves sliding backwards as they tried to climb out. Eventually the State Patrol closed the bridge and led everybody out on foot.)
I’ve been meaning to hike up the hill. Nothing like snowshoeing down Broadway and stopping to get a bowl of Pho. (In 91 there was a Thai place that had a to-go window on the street, and I saw people cross-country ski up to it to get Satay in peanut sauce.)
BTW, if you think “snow-pocalypse” is hyperbole, how about this? Environment Canada (the government agency officially responsible for forecasts in a country that’s kind of familiar with winter weather) had this up for Ontario a day or two ago:
By the way, I saw a guy walking around in shorts and t-shirt this morning!
Context is everything. I used to go visit my father in Alberta for Christmas, and sometimes when I came back I’d be wandering around outside in just a t-shirt when it was about 32F here, because that was about seventy degrees (F) warmer than where I just was.
I hope you are kidding…and for what it’s worth, you probably are since I suck at recognizing sarcasm on the internet…
Well there is one other reason they drive more slowly when it rains in So Calif.: as that radio announcer probably also said, and as the Dept of Motor Vehicles handbook says (and they test you on this when you apply for a driver’s license; not being native to So Calif I got the answer wrong): roads and freeways are especially slick when it starts raining after a long period of no rain (and most rainstorms in So Calif are exactly that: the first rainfall after a period of no rain).
That freeway that’s usually fine at 65 mph might not be so good when it’s wet — not due to the moisture per se, but due to the accumulated oils, grease, and debris that dissolves with those initial raindrops.
On the driver’s license exam, I figured that an even worse traction situation was when the rainfall was so severe as to create standing puddles of water, so that was the answer that I picked. Wrongo, according to the DMV; it’s during that initial rainfall that traction is at its worst.
Now this might be an urban legend propagated by the DMV for all I know. Or it might be that those out-of-towners zipping along the Golden State Freeway (aka I-5) in the rain are being as oblivious as the Seattleites zipping along in icy snowy conditions instead of slowing down. I don’t pretend to know the truth, but I do slow down when it starts raining.
During the Rose Bowl, the daytime temps can be as low as the 50s. The Big 10 fans from Penn State (or in other years Ohio State or Michigan or wherever) will be reveling in the warmth in shorts and t-shirts. Meanwhile the Southern Californians will be wearing down jackets and stocking caps.
You guys are crazy. It was 70 (and muggy) in Atlanta yesterday.
-20C all week in Winter-peg. Hasn’t been above freezing since Dec. 1st.
It’s even worse today, at least on Capitol Hill.
Metro’s official stance for the day: “screw you, we’re staying home in bed”.