Meteorological observations on the way home from band practice

[Bryan316]

Everything is FREAKIN FROZEN.

Every road around here is glazed over. Every parked vehicle has a 1/4" coat of ice. I-94 just west of I-275 had sooooo many emergency vehicles were hauling butt down the service drive, and we found why a 1/4 mile further. Five cop cars and various emergency rescue vehicles in the center, taking care of cars on the opposite side of traffic. But as we approached those guys, my brother spotted an SUV's brake lights... in oncoming traffic. Then its headlights. Then its brakelights again! All four tires on the road, and spinning and spinning and spinning. You could tell all the cars behind it were just gently slowing down, praying not to smash into the pirouetting SUV.

The we get near Metro Airport. Oh yeah, more emergency vehicles. But the other side of the highway had SIX cop cars hauling butt, lights a-flashing.


Metro Detroit Talkbassers. Account for an extra 1/2 hour to full hour for tomorrow morning. We're all gonna need it, cuz it is HORRIBLE out there right now, and the temperature's only dropping.

Go put plastic bags over your wiper blades and mirrors, and make sure you give plenty of time for your car to warm up and thaw tomorrow morning.

[Linas]

Yea same deal here on the campus of UIC, although the roads have been salted, the sidewalks are just covered in a sheet of ice. Should be a fun first day of finals week for the students. YAY!!

[Tsal]

Yep, we have the same thing around here - we just had a sudden heatwave in the middle of December so the hard, packed snow surfaces on the roads turned into ice when the temperature got bit above the freezing point..

However, I don't have any pirouetting problems, but then again it might be because I have these babies beneath my axles:

[Loose Cannon]

Originally Posted by Bryan316

..... All four tires on the road, and spinning and spinning and spinning. ....

What? You're kidding! I've seen the commercials; those SUVs will go ANYWHERE! Nothing will stop them!!!

Doesn't that just irritate you, though, when someone driving one of those just flys past you on a slick road?!

We are getting a little ice storm here in Missouri, too. Over 36,000 people in eastern Missouri and about 40,000 in western parts lost electricity yesterday, and more ice is forecast this evening and Tuesday evening.

When I was younger, all this was a lot more fun.

[Baryonyx]

It's a rather mild, albeit wet, December day in Newcastle.

[Rusty Chainsaw]

Originally Posted by Chris2112

It's a rather mild, albeit wet, December day in Newcastle.

Be grateful that the UK doesn't really get ice storms. I'd never seen one until I came out here, and they are pant-soilingly scary should you happen to be on the road when they hit. Back in the UK I used to lament the fact that we hardly ever saw snow anymore, but I'd rather things be like that than dealing with the ice storms here.

[Baryonyx]

Yeah, I'm glad we don't get much snow. Every time it hits the road infrastructer is crippled. Absolutely ridiculous!

[Rusty Chainsaw]

Originally Posted by Chris2112

Yeah, I'm glad we don't get much snow. Every time it hits the road infrastructer is crippled. Absolutely ridiculous!

Dunno how it gets up in the Toon, but the M25 on a snowy day was about as much fun as bowel surgery. There's plenty of things I miss about the UK, but the M25 is not one of them.

When I lived back in the UK, I used to think that the American penchant for pickup trucks and SUVs was just about excess and the "bigger is better" mentality, but having seen what the winters are like here, I take that back... you need 4-wheel-drive just to get anywhere.

[louieeadg]

It's 65 degrees here...last week it was 35 There's nothing more confusing than a North Carolina Winter...

The air is so dry, my scalp is flaking and my hands are cracking...