13 or 14 inches of snow on the ground and it's 3.4 degrees outside and the wind is howling. Plus, looking at the 10-day forecast, it's not supposed to go over 32 until the end of next week. Ugh.

I predict this thread is about to descend into the depths of a climate change debate, so before it does I just want to say that I feel for y'all and hope you stay safe and warm. This cold snap is going to make homecoming seem that much warmer for ya

psychobillycadillac wrote:I predict this thread is about to descend into the depths of a climate change debate, so before it does I just want to say that I feel for y'all and hope you stay safe and warm. This cold snap is going to make homecoming seem that much warmer for ya

I do not miss those temps, although once again we're not escaping the vortex of doom, it's supposed to be 9 degrees tomorrow morning with windchills below zero.

Long term forecast for Homecoming says temps in the 50's but I don't think that means shit til we're a week out.

There's no debate to be had. Climate change is Clam's fault.

I, for one, am enjoying the opportunity to say "Polar Vortex" many times a day. Haven't has this much fun since El Nino.

Beebs wrote:I, for one, am enjoying the opportunity to say "Polar Vortex" many times a day. Haven't has this much fun since El Nino.

You'll have fun this year.
(it's a El Nino year)

Maybe the Earth is tilting on a different axis. The poles will be melting & Philly will soon be the top of the world.

Slipkid42 wrote:Maybe the Earth is tilting on a different axis. The poles will be melting & Philly will soon be the top of the world.

And there's Clams, standing next to the Rocky statue w/ his arms in the Rocky pose shouting, "Look at me, Ma, I'm on top of the world!"

If the poles do shift you know who I'm gonna blame right?

I just bought a new compass. God Dammit, Clams.

that's my front yard.
May not be shit to y'all yankees, but it's literally a state of emergency here in God's country.

Smitty wrote:

that's my front yard.
May not be shit to y'all yankees, but it's literally a state of emergency here in God's country.

Yeah, that's nothing here (I can't remember - are Midwesterners "Yankees"?), but we're equipped to deal with it. I would imagine you guys don't have much snow removal equipment.

I would assume you'll be warming up in a few days and it will melt? Remember, snow driving ain't bad. Especially with 4x4. It's the ice that'll get ya. If you got a lot of ice.... ugh.

Anyone north of Knoxville is a yankee to us.
Nah, we have pretty much no snow removal equipment; considering this is the most snow this county has seen since '93, I can see why.
I just took the Toyota 4x4 twenty miles to the nearest town (Tallapoosa, Ga) - there was about one car pulled over every 50 yards and I counted four that had actually went off in a ditch. Right now it's mostly snow, a little slick in some places; when the snow stops and melts and freezes, well let's just say the EMS/tow companies will be busy tonight. Schools & work is shut down till Thursday (for 3" of snow).

Smitty wrote:Anyone north of Knoxville is a yankee to us.
Nah, we have pretty much no snow removal equipment; considering this is the most snow this county has seen since '93, I can see why.
I just took the Toyota 4x4 twenty miles to the nearest town (Tallapoosa, Ga) - there was about one car pulled over every 50 yards and I counted four that had actually went off in a ditch. Right now it's mostly snow, a little slick in some places; when the snow stops and melts and freezes, well let's just say the EMS/tow companies will be busy tonight. Schools & work is shut down till Thursday (for 3" of snow).

It's about to hit here Smitty. Still raining as of my drive home from work but should be turning to the other stuff any minute,

As Patterson said, down here we may be able to jump our General Lee's over ditches but at the mere sign of flurries we are wrapping around power poles.

I thought you guys were all southern badasses down in 'Bama. Sack up and go to school, kids

Zip City wrote:I thought you guys were all southern badasses down in 'Bama. Sack up and go to school, kids

When it's snowy and cold and miserable out down here, we stay at home and rest instead of risking our lives to make some assbag a fat living off our labor. A nice, sensible way of life, just as the Aztecs intended when they invented the sick day.

Jim Cantore thinking on his feet here.

Zip City wrote:I thought you guys were all southern badasses down in 'Bama. Sack up and go to school, kids

We ain't equipped for this shit. Hundreds of kids will be at school tom. cuz they been stuck since yesterday. They're sending humvees and helicopters to pick up stranded motorists on I-20 cuz it's been at a standstill for 14+ hours.

It ain't the snow, it's the ice.

Smitty wrote:It ain't the snow, it's the ice.

Yeah, that's really it. Ice always sucks, north or south, but until you've experienced it in the south after dealing with it up north, you have no clue. The difference is the treatment of the roads. Even if the salt or sand isn't quite doing its job due to temperature it still helps you get just that little bit of traction, in the south there either isn't enough of that or none at all. Put a little snow on top and you have chaos. I'm in Austin today and it was cleared up and melted before I got here but seeing the local news shows quite the story from yesterday. The images from Atlanta and Birmingham are far worse. Hard to plan for events that happen once or twice a decade or less.

The question is not why GA, AL, etc are so totally paralyzed - they don't have the driving experience or the equipment to deal w/ this shit. The question is why schools closed in my town when we had 3 inches of snow. I assume the answer is that 12 - 18 inches were predicted and they wanted to get out ahead of it, but still, the Northeast's ability to deal w/ standard wintry conditions has diminished considerably since the days when I walked 2 miles in blizzards to get to school, uphill both ways. In particular, people can't drive for shit in the snow and ice. I blame Clams. I also blame the "SUV culture" - people in those monster cars apparently think they're invulnerable and that their tires are better than everyone else's. Very strange, very dangerous. Plenty of other contributing factors of course, but mostly it's Clams.

beantownbubba wrote:The question is not why GA, AL, etc are so totally paralyzed - they don't have the driving experience or the equipment to deal w/ this shit. The question is why schools closed in my town when we had 3 inches of snow. I assume the answer is that 12 - 18 inches were predicted and they wanted to get out ahead of it, but still, the Northeast's ability to deal w/ standard wintry conditions has diminished considerably since the days when I walked 2 miles in blizzards to get to school, uphill both ways. In particular, people can't drive for shit in the snow and ice. I blame Clams. I also blame the "SUV culture" - people in those monster cars apparently think they're invulnerable and that their tires are better than everyone else's. Very strange, very dangerous. Plenty of other contributing factors of course, but mostly it's Clams.

I do blame Clams, but isn't the litigious culture also to blame? Aren't these school districts and towns so afraid of legal action that they overreact? A neighbor of mine in Illinois, and a school board member, told me a few years ago that this was 100% of the reason for increased winter school closings.

Tequila Cowboy wrote:I do blame Clams, but isn't the litigious culture also to blame? Aren't these school districts and towns so afraid of legal action that they overreact? A neighbor of mine in Illinois, and a school board member, told me a few years ago that this was 100% of the reason for increased winter school closings.

I don't believe that's the case around here because I haven't heard anyone give that explanation nor have I heard the kinds of horror stories that lead to that kind of response. But that doesn't mean it's not the case; after all it's been a while since i've had kids in the schools.

One thing I do see is the increased coordination between government and business at least partly based on the better weather forecasting that's available now. There seems to be a lot more thought and planning in deciding when to ask businesses to close early, when to declare snow emergencies or the more serious "state of emergency", etc. This is mostly a plus but it does lead to the occasional false alarm like the one i referred to. Interestingly, I think it's made business people much more like school kids when it comes to thinking that some time off ought to be in their future, lol.

We've had one actual "snow" day this year, but about 4 "cold" days. They'll close school if the temperatures in the morning are below 0 degrees

In regards to school closings did anyone see the Georgia Governor talk about the issues in his state and throwing the schools under the bus by stating that they made poor decisions in not closing the schools early enough? We're a long way from Harry Truman and "the buck stops here" huh?

Just saw a National Guard Convoy. Surreal.

I drive a truck and my route takes me from Nashville to Atlanta and back to Nashville on a daily basis. I am in a hotel in chattanooga right now because I ran out of driving hours yesterday afternoon. Georgia's lack of preparation is inexcusable. The snow was forecasted days in advance and they did nothing to prepare. I crossed the state line into Tennessee and the difference in the road conditions was astounding. If Tennessee can get their roads passable on short notice (Tennessee wasn't supposed to see much impact) there is no reason Georgia can't at least treat bridges and hills on the interstates.

The other issue these days is what's really unexpected? Blame the gods, blame climate change, blame Obama, blame whatever, the fact is that ice & snow are clearly a periodic, repeating problem in GA that would seem to require acknowledgement (i.e. training, planning, budgeting) at this point. It was only, what?, 3 or so yrs ago that it took me 4 hours to get from ATL to Athens because of a far less than apocalyptic snow/ice storm.

I've been laughing at this all morning. I'm such a simpleton.

That is classic - too bad that douche did not drop to the ground in pain -

Atlanta is a city 1,000 feet above sea level and is prone to shit weather. I was amazed when I lived there for 16 years that the city had no plan what so ever for events like this and I'm not surprised they still don't....

I don't blame Clams for this one....like TC said you can't do anything when the ice comes....stay safe and warm y'all