Snowmaggeddon in Seattle

[A10]

This is gonna crack a lot of you up. It's snowing fairly hard in most of Western Washington right now, and the area is in a panic! We have maybe 4 inches on the ground at our place. So far I see about 5 pretty good wrecks on the freeway around here, and all of the schools are closed. The local news has been broadcasting proper driving techniques and telling people they should stock up on food. By the way, the snow will probably be gone by Friday morning. Take a look at our local news:

Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

 

[A10]

This picture showed up in my email:

 

[Bud11]

I laughed too as my brother lives there. We had a foot on top of 4 inches 3 days later a few weeks back and nobody said or did anything different than usual, more or less.

 

[sqhead]

here in florida the news goes crazy when we get a thunderstorm,geeez !! in the summer we get one everyday..............guess they have nothing else to scare the public with that day.

 

[Iggy]

I always get a kick out of the weather channel. "there's a terrible blizzard in NYC. We've got 2" of snow and 20 mph winds. On the West coast there is a terrible storm coming in with snow and 30 mph winds"

Meanwhile in Wyoming, we've got 12" of snow and 50 mph winds and wind chills in the -50's and the weather channel says "oh yeah, it snowed some in the Rockies too"

 

[BearBio]

Our Portland Office closed up when they received 3", on the east side, we got 26" the same day and had to stay open!

We're due for 10" east of the Cascades today. More due manana!

 

[BearBio]

I always get a kick out of the weather channel. "there's a terrible blizzard in NYC. We've got 2" of snow and 20 mph winds. On the West coast there is a terrible storm coming in with snow and 30 mph winds"

Meanwhile in Wyoming, we've got 12" of snow and 50 mph winds and wind chills in the -50's and the weather channel says "oh yeah, it snowed some in the Rockies too"

Everyone knows it doesn't snow in Wyoming because it doesn't land until it reaches Colorado because of the wind!

 

[venomballistics]

one winter back in WI. a lady in North Pole AK and I used to compare weather nearly every day as some kind of competition.
more often than not WI held the title for bitterness of climate.
Hope the girls in Seattle enjoy the fine T Shirt weather they've received

 

[jlrhiner]

Boy howdy! Y'all remember when we worked for a livin' and had to go out in that horrible weather? I remember getting all bundled up to go to work, and turned around and the beagle was in my spot on the bed! I asked the wife what was up with that and she said "oh, it's too cold for her out there! Have fun at work!" I swear they were both snoring when I left!

 

[venomballistics]

Boy howdy! Y'all remember when we worked for a livin' and had to go out in that horrible weather? I remember getting all bundled up to go to work, and turned around and the beagle was in my spot on the bed! I asked the wife what was up with that and she said "oh, it's too cold for her out there! Have fun at work!" I swear they were both snoring when I left!

you had it easy. In WI you did all that THEN you put on snow shoes and grabbed a 15' pole to prod into the snow till ya hit what you thought was your car. you then spent a few hours digging till you found it was the kids little red wagon and went back to prodding the snow.
once you did manage to find it (and resurrect it from its icy grave) youd only find it wouldnt start .. why they never did design a battery for the real world .. you pulled the battery and brought it in to thaw. another hour or two you put it back in and forged a path through the snow before the plow left the Swiss Alps in snow across the drive way. Snow blower .. HA .. your still looking for the shed its in
top that one

 

[mtb1bkr]

One night while I was on duty at Camp Lejeune, I decided to read through the orders binders, which you are supposed to do every time you are on duty. Well, I looked at them and the funniest thought occured to me. The "snow emergency" binder was a 3" binder, full to the limit. The "hurricane plan" binder was a 3/4" binder, about half full. Now, this is the coast of NC, and we get a lot more opportunities for hurricanes than snow by far. The one time they mentioned snow in the weather report while I was there for two winters, the base completely shut down, no one was authorized to drive anywhere unless it was an emergency. I think the local auto stores even announced they would have snow chains for sale!!! We went shopping, was the most peaceful shopping we did the whole time we were there, most everyone was huddled up in their house waiting for the blizzard!! I think I seen 3-4 snowflakes that day!

 

[BaldEagle1313]

To be completely fair, snow isn't something that people are used to here. Plus, Greater Seattle is so hilly that any sort of loss of traction is a real issue. The only city in the country with "hilly-er" terrain is San Francisco.

They are doing a real good job keeping the freeways clear, but the chore is getting to the freeway. All those folks in their SUV's still have summer tires on them, assuming that four wheel drive conquers all. Four wheel drive helps you get going but it doesn't help you STOP.

Heard on the news this morning that there are 132 school districts in Western Washington. 122 of them are closed, and the other ten are on late schedule/limited hours/limited transportation.

The thing that just slays me is the transit buses. They bought these fancy-dancy, dual power, six-axle articulated buses. The middle wheels are electric for downtown and inside the bus tunnel, and then outside they switch to diesel which powers the rear set of axles. But those axles are BEHIND where the bus articulates, so when things start to slip, the bus jack-knifes and blocks the whole road. At a time when more people want to ride so they aren't driving themselves, Metro has to take a bunch of buses out of service and REDUCE capacity. Committee planning at its finest.

 

[LazyKB]

Whenever snow was forecasted in Memphis they would close schools in Chattanooga.

 

[snowman]

When I was growing up here in northern Ohio, we had heavy snows regularly all winter long. Lots of pulling and digging out, etc. Normal stuff.

Later I attended graduate school in SC and made a number of friends and acquaintances from the southeast. One winter day a fellow from Savannah, GA and I were walking across campus to a vehicle to go to church. It was what we call here "spitting snow"(an occasional flake or two). He turned to me in all seriousness and said, "Boy it's really putting it down isn't it?"

I still get hearty laughs when I tell that story here.

Andy

 

[Pete99004]

Over hear on the east side you would think that it's the end of the world! SNOW - OMG we're going to get a bunch of SNOW!!! Grocery stores were packed! Like your not going to be able to get out for a month!!

Geez, what a bunch chicken little's - but then you realize that most of these people are transplants from CA - then things begin to make sense again....

That's what I miss about Minnesota - no one panics when it looks like it might snow - and you never had to trim your nose hair - you just go outside in January when it's -30 degrees, all your nose hair will freeze, blow your nose the hair breaks off and is gone!

Pete

 

[novalty]

Don't feel bad. You would think being in Maine, people would just be accustomed to having a snow storm:it comes, the road crews clean it up, power company fixes any outtages, things return to "normal"--but NO. People still hit the food stores when they say were going to get a storm, if they predict a lot shelves will be bare of bread, water, batteries, etc. Still amazed at the people that live here that think they need to stock up for weeks, when things are back to normal in a day or two.

 

[venomballistics]

To be completely fair, snow isn't something that people are used to here. Plus, Greater Seattle is so hilly that any sort of loss of traction is a real issue. The only city in the country with "hilly-er" terrain is San Francisco.

They are doing a real good job keeping the freeways clear, but the chore is getting to the freeway. All those folks in their SUV's still have summer tires on them, assuming that four wheel drive conquers all. Four wheel drive helps you get going but it doesn't help you STOP.

Heard on the news this morning that there are 132 school districts in Western Washington. 122 of them are closed, and the other ten are on late schedule/limited hours/limited transportation.

Driving in it is a skill.
as a young punk I mastered that skill in a rear wheel drive manual tranny car with mostly bald tires as was the fashion of that age where ambitions overshot personal funding
In our young and dumb years in WI, conditions like that weren't really hardships as much as they were opportunities to ahem "gain extra studies in the field of advanced practical low friction physics"... nah .. statute of limitations is up... no need to be genteel We'd throw our cars down the road in any direction we could think up hootin and hollerin in grand hold my beer and watch this fashion .... then laugh like school girls ... its a wonder any of us survived high school but you cant say we didnt live.
WI plates seem to hold some kind of authority elsewhere when the winter hits. when I first moved here I found many Omaha area commuters in my rear view mirror just assuming I knew what i was doing .... which I did ... didnt always know where I was going but I knew how to get there

 

[Kanewpadle]

This is gonna crack a lot of you up. It's snowing fairly hard in most of Western Washington right now, and the area is in a panic! We have maybe 4 inches on the ground at our place. So far I see about 5 pretty good wrecks on the freeway around here, and all of the schools are closed. The local news has been broadcasting proper driving techniques and telling people they should stock up on food. By the way, the snow will probably be gone by Friday morning. Take a look at our local news:

Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News

Yup, been listening to the radio reports for the last few days. They tell us to slow down. Turn in the direction we're sliding etc... The one thing they seem to forget to tell us is to let off the gas!

I work in Kent and live in Auburn. I don't trust the "other" drivers one bit.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Driving in it is a skill.
as a young punk I mastered that skill in a rear wheel drive manual tranny car with mostly bald tires as was the fashion of that age where ambitions overshot personal funding
In our young and dumb years in WI, conditions like that weren't really hardships as much as they were opportunities to ahem "gain extra studies in the field of advanced practical low friction physics"... nah .. statute of limitations is up... no need to be genteel We'd throw our cars down the road in any direction we could think up hootin and hollerin in grand hold my beer and watch this fashion .... then laugh like school girls ... its a wonder any of us survived high school but you cant say we didnt live.
WI plates seem to hold some kind of authority elsewhere when the winter hits. when I first moved here I found many Omaha area commuters in my rear view mirror just assuming I knew what i was doing .... which I did ... didnt always know where I was going but I knew how to get there

Yes, but you actually learned something. People here are dumb. I know, I watch them drive on dry pavement and they stink!

It is kind of funny though. I grew up driving in Alaska. So this around here is nothing.

 

[labworm]

After "The Blizzard Of 78" in the Northeast, everything is just a light dusting.