On Wed, 29 Jan 2014 16:32:46 -0600, basilisk
wrote:

On 01/29/2014 03:59 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jan 2014 15:28:32 -0600, dpb wrote:

On 1/29/2014 2:37 PM, basilisk wrote:
...

I have never seen an ice dam form in AL. usually or snow events last for
10 hours or so and melt completely in a day or so.

If we have a mini ice age, I'll heed your warning.

What most southerners could really benefit from is rudimentary
driving lessons, for instance yesterday there was a little over an inch
on the roads, it's cold enough that it is a dry blowing snow over some
pack ice on the roads. People drove in the ditches by the tens of
thousands. I don't understand it.

I don't claim any great driving skill but I managed to drive 150 plus
miles in the same mess without any problems. (in a two wheel drive pickup)

The primary problem is they simply won't slow down sufficiently enough
to even have a half-chance when they do lose it when either

a) somebody in front loses it,
b) they try to pass on icy lane and lose it,
c) they try to stop themselves

I found exactly the opposite, yesterday. People were so scared they
wouldn't move. They drove too *slow* (as in stopped) and the snow
under them turned to ice. There wasn't a chance to blow lanes clear
of pack the snow before it turned to ice. People stopped at the
bottom of hills. They're probably still there.

Yep, got behind one going so slow that there was no way they were going
to make it over the next hill, I found a nice place to pull over and
waited until they were out of the picture before going on.

Same thing happened tonight on the way home (two days after the snow).
Some moron got stuck on the same hill and cops had the road blocked
off. I had to drive ~10Mi around. There is still a lot of ice
around, where the sun couldn't get at it.

The other big problem is that there are no Winter tires here (myself
included) and many are running slicks.

I do have good mud/snow tires, it helps.

I don't. It's a new truck so has new tires but it does get a little
goosy going up slick hills. My wife has been stuck at home since
Monday and is about to go over the wall. I went into work at noon and
called back to tell her to forget it.

...