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Severe Winter Storm (South Georgia Style)

Bill Arnold

Bill Arnold

1974
Staff member
Messages
8,631
Location
Thomasville, GA
OK, I'm sure you Northerners will get a chuckle out of this, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

A few photos around our home:

Sleet (no snow) on the rooftop.
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Sleet (about two grains thick) on the patio table.
20140129_b.jpg

Icicles on the patio umbrella.
20140129_c.jpg

Roads are open. Schools are closed. We're staying in only because we have nowhere to be today.

It's all relative, I guess. :)
 
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2 inches of snow to people down south takes the same toll as 12 inches of snow to people in Minnesota.
while the northerners might laugh at all the hoopla in the media about a deadly powerful storm hitting the south, its really relative as you say.
southerners don't have the equipment to deal with it. they get it once every 15 years, so municipalities wont invest money into snow clearing equipment. they wont store acres of dirt or salt for streets.
People who live there their entire life have never driven on ice or snowy roads, so it becomes very dangerous.
Its the same when temps here hit close to 100, it almost shuts down the city, utilities fail, huge power failures, blackouts, and people in the southwest deal with this 9 months a year.
I was ticked off we got about 2 inches last night, just enough to annoy me and make me go out and push snow again, Im disgusted with this winter.
 
-9° this morning. 7° now. 7" of snow on the ground. Road crews have plowed, salted and 'beet juiced' the roads, and they're virtually clear. Just went out for breakfast, groceries, etc., and didn't encounter snow anywhere except parking lots.

Quite a few years ago, we lived in Havelock, NC. Got maybe three inches of snow, and the entire area was shut down for several days. Reason?: That area of North Carolina had absolutely no snow removal equipment, nor did they have any salt, cinders, or other stuff to use. They used road graders to remove some snow from the main streets, and actually went to the beach (Atlantic Beach, NC) to get dump trucks full of beach sand, which they spread over the streets via two guys standing in the truck bed with shovels.

That's the difference between Northern (snow belt) snowstorms and Southern (sun belt) snowstorms.
 
Yes stuff like that is a cake walk for us, but as said before, when it is not the normal for the area, it is tough! Be careful Bill and others down there, don't need any breaks due to falls on that ice
 
My cousin and his family are in Atlanta, and it's been interesting to see how they're dealing with it. My cousin grew up in Santa Fe, so he's had plenty of experience driving on slick stuff. He's been getting to and from work OK. (Just having to dodge the inexperienced folks on the roads.) His wife, on the other hand, is from south Texas and has no idea how to handle it. It took her 45 minutes to drive 8 blocks yesterday. Sort of a rolling road hazard.
 
It was crazy to see the camera shots of Atlanta in total gridlock this morning with what appeared to be a dusting of snow on the ground and roads. Then, in the same report, there would be shots of folks in the way up north with almost blizzard conditions going about their business as usual. :eek:

I've never lived in snow country, but have driven in western Oklahoma and Colorado enough in Wintery conditions to retain a bit of sensibility. Sometimes, things get kinda weird weather-wise like about 1978. I was living in Stephenville, TX (about 90 miles southwest of Ft. Worth). It could be 110° in the Summer and plenty cold in the Winter. Anyway, around 1978 the Winter conditions did a flip-flop in that Colorado ski resorts didn't have enough snow to open and we had 18" in Stephenville! Quite an enlightening event!
 
I saw a few news reports where people were referring to the people in the south in an unsavory manner for not being able to handle the snow and other less than supportive comments. As a professional disaster manager...that behaviour is inhuman and beyond contempt. Tough situations all over the east...Midwest and the drought in the west is at epic levels for those that like to eat. I know everyone here is a helper not a basher...just pushed a few buttons. I grew up in the mountains driving...putting on chains...35 mph...making a fire...storing food...usual stuff. If you know a basher...send 'em to me!
 
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@Jim:

Right now, we're laughing about how the South handles a little snow vs how the North does. On the other side of the thermometer, as a young Southerner I could never understand people in NYC struggling to stay alive in 85-90° temperatures when we worked outdoors in 100-110°. Oh, and what's this garbage about a car NOT having air-conditioning (common up north)? It all depends on what we become acclimated to in our relative areas of the planet.
 
Bill...all things being equal... it topped 115 here last summer and we were fine...sucks, but we are used to it. Working in BDU's 15hrs straight in places like Hatai and such...adapt and help...like we all do.
 
Don Baer said:
My son is laughing about it because he has had 4 combat deployment with the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and now a little snow has an entire base shut down in Florida.
Click to expand...

I hear ya Don...part of me does too, plenty of Iraq/Kuwait time, but nothing in Afghanistan. But the scary thing in that part of the country is that there are a lot of retirees, older folk with slim incomes, single moms that work with kids...more trouble than we have out here. Some, if not all roads are blocked and fuel trucks can't get in. In many respects...Iraq was a lot easier than what the mid-west and east coast are going through...we always had the mess and MRE's.
 
Got 5-6" of light powder last night and things slowed down here in Yorktown VA but haven't come to a standstill. We get as much as a foot on occasion and that really closes the door. I was really surprised this afternoon when I walked out the door with my shovel in hand ready to do battle and found that my neighbor and his son had already cleared the driveway and sidewalk. I share my large garden with them in the summer, so I guess this is their way of saying thanks. I'd hate to think it was because they took pity on that old couple that lives across the street:)
 
Really - 12" of snow does slow us down a little.
Throws us off by an hour or so.
But that is ONLY because
1- we have experience with it and
2- we have GREAT snow removal services.
Without those - we would be in trouble too. Well - maybe not with 2"

I feel bad for the folks stuck in the traffic and all.

Last time snow affected us that way was in 1978 when we got 48" of snow. That shut us down for a week.
 
Leo, I remember the "Blizzard of '78", don't recall how many inches of snow we had in NH, but it was a lot. That was a tough one. Lots of power outages and not as many portable backup generators as people have now.
 
Ice is terrible. Snow can be inconvenient but ice, don't care where you are, it is terrible. Here where I live in NorthWest Indiana, we have guard rails beside the road for a 3' deep ditch. Many places down South have no guard rails on entire roads that have mammoth drop offs! No way would I want to drive on those roads with snow or ice on them. I think you are smart for staying in when you don't need to go out. Falling and breaking a bone or worse, not worth it. You all will be back in summer weather before we will.
 
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