Rant; Winter 2013/14

[IMADreamer]

9 inches here so far. Little bit of a lull right now but more coming soon. The commute to my couch was a [expletive] today.

[jim]

Legit gripe around here is the people that live on corner lots - they need to chip off the peaks of their snow hills at the end of their driveways. I was crossing an intersection today at a stop sign on a heavily traveled side street and I couldn't see [expletive] because of the 6' snow mounds at the ends of the driveway. It was snowing, so if I pulled out and a car was coming he wouldn't have been able to stop. I actually shoveled the tops off of mine this past weekend because we couldn't see pulling out of the driveways.

I'll bet I still have snow in my yard well into April. It will take forever to melt those big mounds.

[jim]

Did anyone from St. Louis/KC survive? Has FEMA arrived yet? Hang in there friends. Tragic, really tragic. Missouri strong baby, Missouri strong.

[Molly]

Did anyone from St. Louis/KC survive? Has FEMA arrived yet? Hang in there friends. Tragic, really tragic. Missouri strong baby, Missouri strong.

Hubby's girlfriend before me was from Michigan. She was always amazed at the reaction of St. Louis' weather forecasters to even the slightest hint of accumulating snow.

This was the same woman who took a parking place from some poor guy who spent 3 hours shoveling his car out. She actually slammed the door in his face, claiming it was a public street, when he asked her to move her car.

[JL21]

I'll admit that this winter has been legitimately cold and snowy. But yes, generally speaking, St. Louisans are huge babies about this kind of stuff. A forecast of 1-2" of snow means the grocery stores are going to be packed and schools may be cancelled.

What really kills me is that, with the slightest amount of precipitation, all hell breaks loose on the roads in STL. That goes for both rain and snow. People do things that they would NEVER do on dry streets- swerving into lanes, running stop signs and red lights*, pulling out in front of other drivers… It amazes me.


*I realize that sometimes, you have to make a really tough judgement call about slamming on your brakes and skidding on slick streets but I'm pretty sure this is a case of people taking advantage of that and just gunning it through lights/stop signs.

[StL Dan]

I live in the southwest suburbs of the KC metro. On the way in to work this morning, the radio folks were saying our neck of the woods got about 12" of snow yesterday and throughout the night. Strong winds made drifting in areas fairly significant.

I stayed at work until 430 yesterday afternoon. Only two of us were left. The road home was desolate. I made better time than when there isn't any snow on the roads. I recorded the trip home on my iPhone.

This morning it's sunny and clear. The high will be 8 degrees, but the UV rays should help the roads a bit.

[Fat_Bulldog]

Bravo, snow road heroes.

I was given the option of working from home today, so I took advantage of it.

[Radbird]

Let's say you are planning a road trip in this crap and you have 2 vehicles to choose from - Subaru Impreza (AWD) or Toyota Highlander (4WD). Which one do you take?

To me, it's a tradeoff between gas mileage and a bigger vehicle with better ground clearance. Both handle winter driving well.

[jim]

Highlander.

OMG 12 inches of snow. High winds! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH. COOOOOLLLLD! WE ARE ALL DOOOOOOMED.

Stop your whining. Didn't you read that one thread?

In a fun scientific note I just created a glacier. The piles of snow are about 6 feet high in various parts of my driveway, and I swear to god I threw a pile of snow on this morning and the thing actually moved about 6". I have made a glacier. I spent 45' shoveling and now have to get on for a 9am conference call. I think I have about another 20 to do - but it's the end of the driveway where that [expletive]' snowplow piles everything up, so who knows.

[heyzeus]

I'll admit that this winter has been legitimately cold and snowy. But yes, generally speaking, St. Louisans are huge babies about this kind of stuff. A forecast of 1-2" of snow means the grocery stores are going to be packed and schools may be cancelled.

What really kills me is that, with the slightest amount of precipitation, all hell breaks loose on the roads in STL. That goes for both rain and snow. People do things that they would NEVER do on dry streets- swerving into lanes, running stop signs and red lights*, pulling out in front of other drivers… It amazes me.


*I realize that sometimes, you have to make a really tough judgement call about slamming on your brakes and skidding on slick streets but I'm pretty sure this is a case of people taking advantage of that and just gunning it through lights/stop signs.

That's because all midwesterners are stupid, and don't know how to drive.