Author Topic: Heavy Wet Snow  (Read 798 times)

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Offline Sourdough

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Heavy Wet Snow
« on: October 03, 2008, 06:07:47 PM »
We had two to three inches of heavy wet snow last night.  Today it was like everyone forgot how to drive in the stuff, and have to learn to drive all over again.  I pulled three people out of the ditch before I got to the highway two miles away.  As I drove into town I saw a Ford Pickup in front of me start weaving then go off the road and roll twice.  I slowed up and pulled over.  When the vehicle came to a rest the doors flew open and two women jumped out and started cursing at one another.  I drove away as I called 911 to report the rollover.  A few miles farther a Jeep Cherokee passed me then started sliding and into the center she goes.  When she stopped her rear bumper was on one steep slope and her front bumper was on the other with her wheels hanging in mid air.  I stopped to see if she was OK, she asked me to pull her out.  I refused since I knew it would bust up the plastic covering her bumpers.  I let her use my cell phone to call a tow truck.  I drove on into town and went to NAPA.  As I came out I saw her drive by, the front bumper area was totally torn up.  Also the rear bumper area was damaged.  Then after I went to my appointment and headed home there was seven more people in the ditch or median between Fairbanks and North Pole.  Pretty bad for a smooth, level, and fairly straight four lane highway.

More snow predicted for tonight, tomorrow, sunny on Sunday.  Then more snow Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!  A few more inches and I will be able to get the snow machines out.
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Offline DalesCarpentry

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2008, 06:34:59 PM »
Yea I see idiots every year in the ditch. Even a few times I have had them blow by me going to fast for conditions and I said to myself see you in the ditch up ahead. I get up the road a ways and there they are spun out in a snow bank or in a ditch. I have to say though most times it is women. Dale
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Offline Cement Man

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2008, 07:56:34 PM »
I believe it was 1991 when I was driving up I-35 from Minneapolis to Duluth for deer hunting.  I am from Illinois and there had been a 37" snow in Minnesota on Halloween.  I-35 was only partially open, mostly one lane in each direction.  Some girl in a smaller car came flying up behind me as I saw her in my outside mirror.  She started fishtailing as she got along side of me and I was nearing an exit ramp.  She was going faster than I was, and I was sure she was going to hit me, so I just whipped over on to the exit ramp, went across the overpass and got onto the on-ramp and returned to I-35.  She had spun out by that time, as I saw in my mirror, and I went on my way.  Good timing for me to be at that exit ramp for sure! 

Sourdough - always enjoy your posts.  Thanks!
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Offline williamlayton

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2008, 12:47:46 AM »
I cannot account for people who live in these climes not understanding how too drive in it. It is much the same here, where it is not snow or ice, but water, which is the culprit.
It seems the wetter it gets the faster these fools think they must drive.
Now, I will admit too not knowing how too drive in snow---and, I don't think anyone knows how too drive on ice--as I tried too move the median of beltway 8 about four years ago after a freak snow on Christmas eve.
I was slow but it didn't help.
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Online Graybeard

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #4 on: October 04, 2008, 02:13:32 AM »
Snow here is a rare commodity and seldom seen so folks really don't ever learn to drive properly on it. When we get snow it's almost always a wet heavy snow as it just doesn't get cold enough here for the dry powder snow you guys further north get. Around there 2" to 3" of snow often means roads are officially closed as they just don't have the equipment to clear roads and when the folks start slipping and sliding off the roads the state closes them down until it melts.

But wrecks are not confined to snow conditions for sure. I live dead in the middle of a perfectly straight stretch of road close to a mile long. It is however the only stretch on the roughly ten mile long hiway that offers any real opportunity to pass other vehicles as the rest is too winding to see far enough. In the first year I lived here there were 13 wrecks in a roughly 100 yard wide area in front of my house. I've long ago lost count of the total since we moved here but that was just in the first year we were here. In one of them we were hit in the rear while waiting for traffic to clear to turn into our own driveway. It totalled the little red car that rear ended us and bent up the bumper on my pick up a bit. The impact was so hard it knocked my truck close to 100' down the highway.

There are idiots everywhere and it doesn't take snow to bring them out.


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Offline Savage .250

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #5 on: October 04, 2008, 02:49:34 AM »
  Nothing like the first snow.  Remember those days well from my days living in northern
   Maine. 
   Now instead of snow I get sun-shine.    :)   
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Offline magooch

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2008, 02:51:57 AM »
Hey Sourdough, if that was your first snow, maybe Algore is right about global warming.  When I was stationed at Eilson, the first snow came around the end of August.  That was only about 46 years ago.  In another 50 years, palm trees will line the highway to Fairbanks.
Swingem

Offline Beers

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2008, 03:45:54 AM »
It's always interesting when we get a good snow around here. Out where I live It's not so bad, the only road that isn't dirt or gravel is route 7, it's a truck route so it gets plowed by the state, but nothing else out this way does. Around here people know how to handle a vehicle in the snow. But boy it's a hoot when I get to Morgantown...

We get all these students that hardly know how to drive in the summer, usually in some SUV their parent's bought 'em, they seem to think 4WD will allow them to go as fast as they want on ice... It doesn't help that Morgantown is put together like the streets just fell out of the sky and landed that way. Boy they keep our emergency vehicles busy when the snow comes, and I imagine the insurance companies shell out a lot of money here through the winter...

Offline Gun Runner

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #8 on: October 04, 2008, 04:10:32 AM »
We finally got our first RAIN in N. Cal. in 8 mos. It brought the oil right up to the surface of the roads. Not quite like ice but idiots drive like its nice and clear. There off the road and into each other and wounder WHY?

Gun Runner

Offline Sourdough

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2008, 05:45:40 AM »
Last night my son drove home from the University, and he ended following his Mom from Fairbanks.  My wife don't like the construction area on the south side of North Pole where we live, so she avoids the area by turning off at Paridot Rd.  My son watched her spin three times as she turned.  She then got it straightened out and continued on.  Skyler come on through the construction area.  When Sky got to our little back street he hit the throttle and let the rearend swing off to the right and stayed on the throttle till he reached our drive running sideways down the street.  I can't say much since I do it to quite often.  Well when his Mom got home, she called him out to the entry way and brought up about his tracks in the snow, and how he was going sideways down the street.  Sky looked at her and said "At least I was in control, I watched you spinning on Paridot, and you were not in control".  His Mom has not said another word about it.

Sky and I usually have to go and pull her out of the ditch four or five times a winter.

Oh Yea, I just painted my Ultra .223, my Mini-14, white. I white taped my Sportster .17HMR to blend in with the fresh snow.
Where is old Joe when we really need him?  Alaska Independence    Calling Illegal Immigrants "Undocumented Aliens" is like calling Drug Dealers "Unlicensed Pharmacists"
What Is A Veteran?
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Offline BBF

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2008, 05:54:50 AM »
Three ways to handle icy Roads:
 1. with chains
 2. studded tires( 4 of them)
 3. stay home (least stressful) ;D
What is the point of Life if you can't have fun.

Offline billy_56081

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2008, 07:03:24 AM »
"We had two to three inches of heavy wet snow last night.  Today it was like everyone forgot how to drive in the stuff, and have to learn to drive all over again."


Well it's good to see we here in MN aren't the only place that happens.
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Offline deltecs

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Re: Heavy Wet Snow
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2008, 06:49:45 PM »
Today it snowed for a hour or so at sea level along the coast.  Didn't stay on the ground and it is raining now.  Tomorrow's forecast is for snow mixed with rain.  Was planning on going to town tomorrow in the boat but now might wait until Wed due weather conditions from wind and sea.  Not good traveling weather.  Well it has to be done sometime this week, so will get it over with as soon as possible and eat the stress and discomfort.  Anchorage is expected to have another 6" accumulated snow during the next 2 days, so the idiots will out and about causing all sorts of fender benders.  Happens every year. 
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