Steely Dan
Former Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2008
- Messages
- 30,558
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http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/us/winter-storm-learning-lessons/index.html?iid=article_sidebar
Daring motorists urged to smarten up before taking on bad weather
By Michael Martinez, CNN
updated 10:09 PM EST, Thu February 13, 2014
(CNN) -- To understand how human nature sometimes doesn't heed winter weather warnings, listen to how Deanna Hunt didn't listen.
She ventured into Wednesday's storm in North Carolina, rendering herself stuck in her car on a snowbound road -- even after the nation saw two weeks ago how Georgia motorists were forced to sleep in their cars while stuck in another storm.
Such standstills frustrate officials who warn the public of deadly weather. They're now studying ways to improve messaging, the National Weather Service said....
Ok, here are some tips from a cold weather expert. My Phd. in cold weather was earned from living forty years in Rochester. There are a lot of others with Phd's in cold weather, who are smarter than I am, and I urge them to chime in as well.
A four wheel drive vehicle is useless on ice. All wheel drive is better, but is just as useless on solid ice. Don't kid yourself that your four wheel or AWD cars make it safer on ice. FOUR WHEEL AND AWD DRIVE DO NOT STOP FASTER THAN ANY OTHER CAR ON ICE OR SNOW! GIVE YOURSELF PLENTY OF ROOM BETWEEN CARS! SLOW THE :censored: DOWN!
In the north we are equipped to deal with ice and snow. I lived in Delaware for awhile just east of Philly. They had a storm that would have closed schools for a day in Rochester, that ended up closing schools for a week down there. Don't kid yourself into believing that if northerners can do it so can I. You're area isn't set up to deal with this weather. You most likely don't have storehouses full of salt and fleets of salt trucks to treat the roads like we do.
Stock up on supplies. When the storm warnings are off, overload on stuff. I'm a pack rat. I don't like going out in storms so I have a lot of canned food, frozen food and toilet paper. (BTW, toilet paper never spoils, you'll eventually use it anyway, and can be used as tissues on a roll. I'm single and buy the twelve pack rolls) You can get lunch meats and freeze it for sandwiches. If you refrigerate bread it lasts a long, long time. Pasta lasts forever and only needs water and heat to cook. Canned or bottled spaghetti sauces last a lot longer on the shelf than winter will. If you stock up on this stuff you won't have to go out and fight the crowds of people in the grocery store for dwindling stocks.
If you're afraid of losing power pick up some more blankets. The older ones you have now could probably use replacing anyway. You can use the old ones and new ones on top of each other. Nothing sucks more than trying to sleep when your cold. Think about getting chills with a cold, it's like that.
Make sure you have cold remedies around. Coughing, sneezing, runny noses and stuff like that there can happen a lot more with rising and falling temperatures. If you already have some Nyquil or Robitussin or other cold remedies around you don't have to go out for them when your sick. Especially if it's one of those days when road warnings are out.
If you go into a slide in your car this is what I do (This only works if you drive a standard and front wheel drive car, as far as I know.) turn away from the skid, take the car out of gear, put it back into the next lowest gear and gently hit the gas. Then once the wheels grip and start moving forward turn the wheel to straighten out again. For me, this straightens the car out the best way I've tried.
This is probably obvious, but try to drive in the same rut the car before you is digging. It's really obvious when you see two black lines with a white snowy one in the middle. If you don't HAVE to change lanes, don't change lanes. Trying to move across those white dividers can really make you slip and make the car very hard to control. If your stuck behind someone going slow, deal with it. Better to get home than not get home for a lot longer because you're in an accident.
Don't do any distracted driving, ever, but especially in tough winter conditions. You will need both hands to control the car even in straight line times.
Those are Steely's helpful household tips for the homebound cold weather Websleuthers. :thumb:
Daring motorists urged to smarten up before taking on bad weather
By Michael Martinez, CNN
updated 10:09 PM EST, Thu February 13, 2014
(CNN) -- To understand how human nature sometimes doesn't heed winter weather warnings, listen to how Deanna Hunt didn't listen.
She ventured into Wednesday's storm in North Carolina, rendering herself stuck in her car on a snowbound road -- even after the nation saw two weeks ago how Georgia motorists were forced to sleep in their cars while stuck in another storm.
Such standstills frustrate officials who warn the public of deadly weather. They're now studying ways to improve messaging, the National Weather Service said....
Ok, here are some tips from a cold weather expert. My Phd. in cold weather was earned from living forty years in Rochester. There are a lot of others with Phd's in cold weather, who are smarter than I am, and I urge them to chime in as well.
A four wheel drive vehicle is useless on ice. All wheel drive is better, but is just as useless on solid ice. Don't kid yourself that your four wheel or AWD cars make it safer on ice. FOUR WHEEL AND AWD DRIVE DO NOT STOP FASTER THAN ANY OTHER CAR ON ICE OR SNOW! GIVE YOURSELF PLENTY OF ROOM BETWEEN CARS! SLOW THE :censored: DOWN!
In the north we are equipped to deal with ice and snow. I lived in Delaware for awhile just east of Philly. They had a storm that would have closed schools for a day in Rochester, that ended up closing schools for a week down there. Don't kid yourself into believing that if northerners can do it so can I. You're area isn't set up to deal with this weather. You most likely don't have storehouses full of salt and fleets of salt trucks to treat the roads like we do.
Stock up on supplies. When the storm warnings are off, overload on stuff. I'm a pack rat. I don't like going out in storms so I have a lot of canned food, frozen food and toilet paper. (BTW, toilet paper never spoils, you'll eventually use it anyway, and can be used as tissues on a roll. I'm single and buy the twelve pack rolls) You can get lunch meats and freeze it for sandwiches. If you refrigerate bread it lasts a long, long time. Pasta lasts forever and only needs water and heat to cook. Canned or bottled spaghetti sauces last a lot longer on the shelf than winter will. If you stock up on this stuff you won't have to go out and fight the crowds of people in the grocery store for dwindling stocks.
If you're afraid of losing power pick up some more blankets. The older ones you have now could probably use replacing anyway. You can use the old ones and new ones on top of each other. Nothing sucks more than trying to sleep when your cold. Think about getting chills with a cold, it's like that.
Make sure you have cold remedies around. Coughing, sneezing, runny noses and stuff like that there can happen a lot more with rising and falling temperatures. If you already have some Nyquil or Robitussin or other cold remedies around you don't have to go out for them when your sick. Especially if it's one of those days when road warnings are out.
If you go into a slide in your car this is what I do (This only works if you drive a standard and front wheel drive car, as far as I know.) turn away from the skid, take the car out of gear, put it back into the next lowest gear and gently hit the gas. Then once the wheels grip and start moving forward turn the wheel to straighten out again. For me, this straightens the car out the best way I've tried.
This is probably obvious, but try to drive in the same rut the car before you is digging. It's really obvious when you see two black lines with a white snowy one in the middle. If you don't HAVE to change lanes, don't change lanes. Trying to move across those white dividers can really make you slip and make the car very hard to control. If your stuck behind someone going slow, deal with it. Better to get home than not get home for a lot longer because you're in an accident.
Don't do any distracted driving, ever, but especially in tough winter conditions. You will need both hands to control the car even in straight line times.
Those are Steely's helpful household tips for the homebound cold weather Websleuthers. :thumb: