12-20″ snow says National Weather Service
by Hawes Spencer
published 12:17pm Friday Dec 18, 2009
published 12:17pm Friday Dec 18, 2009
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Bring it!!!!!!!!
Bread, milk, tomatoes, bananas–gone gone gone –great day for the grocery stores !
Somebody really messed up my order!
I requested this storm… starting on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2009. :)
I request the stoem on Christmas eve n Christmas day not the weekend that I have to finish shopping
It started! bring on the terrible drivers
Stay as positive as you can about the weather and put a (lol) on the rest….please slow down and be safe
Request: if you drive a car that can’t go up a snowy slick hill, don’t take it out on the road tonight.
Ha ha. Out of the country. Will be coming hometo enjoy, but miss the morons on the road. I will miss getting to pass by all the numnuts in the AWD cars spinning away, while I blow by in my trusty RWD with winter tyres.
Next snow, for there shall be mire this year.
Curled up on the couch, looking out at the glistening flakes in the lamplight, reading snow poems; one of my favorites:
On the Night of the First Snow, Thinking about Tennessee
Charles Wright
It’s dark now, the horses have had their half-apple,
mist and rain,
Horses down in the meadow, just a few degrees above snow.
I stand in front of the propane stove, warming my legs.
If the door were open, I’d listen to creek water
And think I heard voices from long ago,
distinct, and calling me home.
The past becomes such a mirror—we’re in it, and then we’re not.
Weather Underground now says 20 to 25 inches for this area.
Bring it on, Mother Nature! Give us 36 inches!!!
Will this be the truly big one to equal:
“January 28, 1772: This storm was named the “Washington and Jefferson Snow Storm” since it was recorded in both of their diaries. The storm left near 3 feet of snow from Charlottesville to Winchester to Washington. It was the greatest snow anyone could remember at that time and remains the unofficial record to present day (official records begin in 1872).”
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/lwx/Historic_Events/va-winters.htm
I would like to go on record as saying that I have invented a new word for the english language. It describes the obsessive residents of Charlottesville (and, I’m sure, other places) and their need to go to grocery stores in the hours before any predicted winter weather. It’s sort of an acronym, and rather derogatory. My new word is “embiebam”.
eMBieBAM: Must. Buy. Milk. And. Bread!
Use it often: “As if traffic wasn’t bad enough today - with friday, and the holidays, then you have to add in all those damned embiebams…!”
Remember, you heard it here first.
Corection: Must. Buy. Bread. And. Milk.
‘Cause embiemab just isn’t as funny.
I moved to C-ville in 2000, and waited for this for 7years! The mountains will look beautiful, just don’t try to get to them! The drivers around c-ville just don’t know what to do in snow,especially how to drive in it. They close the schools here after 1/2 inch falls,- mainly due to dangerous back country roads within the Albermarle School District. Just stay home and hope the power doesn’t fail!
Actually they close the schools here when 1/2 inch of snow falls because being number one brought in a huge influx of clueless folks. Too many shouldn’t drive cars at all but insist anyway since they decided to live 10 miles outside of town.
Kurt,
Having a lot of experience in witner weather driving all over the world, I think people are little unfair about C-ville mid-atlantic snow driving. No, locals aren;t as experienced, but the kind of snow that falls here is a LOT more challenging than say, in the NE. Its very wet, heavy, and bheaves very differently than snow that falls a few degrees colder.
For example, when you brake, the snow clumps in the cleats of your tyres as it should, but then form a wad of ice, and breaks loose from the surface of the road, letting you skate alone on a film of ice. Drier snow doesn;t do that, and allows you to get some traction from the surface of the snow itself.
Obviously, the fact that no one uses winter tyres - except wierdos like me - amplifies that effect. I really have to laugh when I see AWD cars and little SUVs slidding all over and struggling because they have all Season tyres. Then there are those that forget that handling is not limited to or even dominated by start up traction, its the entire handling of the vehicle. SUVs generally handle very badly, as a whole.
” SUVs generally handle very badly, as a whole.”
That must be the reason that they are used all around the world including antartica and alaska.
They don’t use audi quattros in the himalayas….
quote: “SUVs generally handle very badly, as a whole.”
Yeah. This is why I found myself passing car after car that was stuck, spinning and sideways in ther road on the smallest incline. Often having to go in the opposing lane to do so. I am putting all my 4X4 SUVs in the paper for sale Monday morning. :)
Caesonia, the only thing I see you repeatedly fail to mention about RWD cars in the USA is the fact that back in the old days people used good snow tires, studded snow tires and chains in weather like we are curretly having. In 2009, RWD owners think their “all season” tires will do just as well. Whoever coined the phrase “all season tires” should be deported.
gasbag and Michilen man -
Obviously you don’t know what the term handling means. It means over all performance, not just start up traction, or the ability to climb slowly over rocks( real 4*4). handling includes things like stopping, starting, turning, those sorts of things.
Keep in mind ALL cars have 4 wheel brakes these days. SUVs are always the first to end up in ditches or turned over when the snow falls.
There was a time in my life when I needed to own a real 4*4, for driving through creeks, and up mountain sides. It was an older diesel Toyota Landcruiser, and would make mincemeat out of what passes today for 4*4 with SUVs. Yeah, I drove it in snow, so deep it was blowing over the bonnet, making sure I didn’t high side it.
“Caesonia, the only thing I see you repeatedly fail to mention about RWD cars in the USA is the fact that back in the old days people used good snow tires.”
No Gasbag, I haven’t failed to mention that. I have said several times I use them myself, so my car not only starts up, but also stops and turns. SUVs do not turn or stop better in all Season Tyres than any other car. Thats why ALL cars should be winterized.
I have driven my RWD 245 Volvo through 18 inches of snow in an emergency in St Louis, to get someone through to hospital. I did some wheel spinning, but I did not get stuck, and at times was literally pushing snow with the air dam and bumper. The tyres? Hakkapalitas. Swedish Snow barn stormers baby!!! No studs. Just all supper winter tyre. It was like having gehko toes on my wheels. I could stop on dime.
Can’t tell you how many SUVs I pushed by that were spinning away….
when I get home, they are going on the car, as they are sitting on the steel rims ready to be mounted.
quote: “SUVs are always the first to end up in ditches or turned over when the snow falls.”
Of course they are. Because people think they are invincible and have super glue traction in them whether accelerating, turning or stopping. When you see a 4X4 SUV wrecked or stuck in the snow, it’s a pretty safe bet the driver is an idiot lacking driving skills, common sense and any understanding of physics whatsoever.
Perfect example of why I think ALL cars need winter tyres for ‘ handling’ in winter weather:
Ok, they won’t let you post the object….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro_iuJHv9hI