Yes. But I wouldn't recommend trying to teach yourself. Where we live, there are courses you can take in how to be a winter driver.
How is your weather? Is everyone safe?
- Thread starter BusynMember
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BusynMember
Well-Known Member
Ice is better off not driven on. Snow...I like four wheel drive vehicles...great for snow. Where I live we get more snow than ice storms so usually winter is safe to drive. Also, in colder climates, there is plenty of equipment for snowy days and the roads get salted and cleared. I know that it's different in St. Louis. My grandson's school shuts down every time there is snow. They just aren't prepared where he lives in Missouri (he isn't really in St. Louis...I just don't want to disclose where he lives. But it is not a good place to drive during one of their many ice storms. It doesn't snow much there).
Except, where I live... where there is snow, there is ice. As in, at every single intersection. Caused by friction as vehicles come to a stop. If it's cold enough (and it often is), sand just slides right off, and salt doesn't work either. Even on a grid road (country gravel thoroughfare), there can be ice at intersections. If enough of us drive on that ice, the intersection eventually becomes worn back down to pavement. So yes, we drive on ice. Just not when it's the only thing to drive on. Snow is preferred to ice, and "cleared roads" (not just plowed, but where the ice has been dealt with as well) are what most of us have as our first pick. But it can take 3 days for the plowing to get caught up, and life doesn't stop just because it snows.
Most of us can't afford four wheel drive, although it is nice to have. It's expensive to maintain, unless you have your own private mechanic in the family.
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
IC, I never heard of salt not working. Yikes! Scary.
Everyone here has a 4-wheel drive just about. They are often older trucks and vans, like ours. It really isn't that hard to maintain, however my husband is a mechanic. But to be fair he rarely has time to work on our own vehicles because he has to use the bay at work for the cars that are there, so it really doesn't help much except we get good deals on car parts. Our apartment complex has no bay so...no can work on truck!
We usually get plowed out as soon as it stops snowing and the highways and main roads are plowed sooner.
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
Everyone here has a 4-wheel drive just about. They are often older trucks and vans, like ours. It really isn't that hard to maintain, however my husband is a mechanic. But to be fair he rarely has time to work on our own vehicles because he has to use the bay at work for the cars that are there, so it really doesn't help much except we get good deals on car parts. Our apartment complex has no bay so...no can work on truck!
We usually get plowed out as soon as it stops snowing and the highways and main roads are plowed sooner.
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
Salt works to about -5F. Below that... there's some new chemical stuff that works to maybe -15F. And then... it's just ice. HOT sand is used at critical intersections, because it melts into the ice, but it's the only thing that works at -40, and even then the trucks have to go back with partial loads because the sand loses heat too fast in the back of the truck. Lets just say that -40 is really cold, no matter how you look at it!
(And I'm not even in the really cold parts of this continent... Some places, you get in a fender bender and there is no dent, just a major hole... the metal shatters like glass.)
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
Wow. And I thought WE got cold. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!
GoingNorth
Crazy Cat Lady
SWOT and IC, when I lived up in Rhinelander, WI, it was usually too cold for salt to work as well. They used sand, which didn't do much. And yes, at major intersections, you got polished ice.
We got clobbered yesterday with what passes as a major storm in the Milwaukee 'burbs: 8" of snow, some sleet and freezing rain, and very high winds.
I had to be out in it as I had a couple of appts I couldn't miss. It was nervewracking driving as it seemed like i was the only person on the roads who could both stop and start while maintaining travel in a straight line.
The winds were the worst of it as I drive a small SUV and we had gusts up to 60 mph. I took surface roads out and back as opposed to the hwy as nearly all of that is elevated and between icing and winds was more than I wanted to deal with.
Now? They are freaking out about the cold snap because it is in the 20s!
Me? I'm cranky because later today I have to go out, and I'm gonna have to chip my car out of it's cozy jacket of ice before I can drive it anywhere. We very rarely got ice in Rhinelander and I didn't miss it up there.
We got clobbered yesterday with what passes as a major storm in the Milwaukee 'burbs: 8" of snow, some sleet and freezing rain, and very high winds.
I had to be out in it as I had a couple of appts I couldn't miss. It was nervewracking driving as it seemed like i was the only person on the roads who could both stop and start while maintaining travel in a straight line.
The winds were the worst of it as I drive a small SUV and we had gusts up to 60 mph. I took surface roads out and back as opposed to the hwy as nearly all of that is elevated and between icing and winds was more than I wanted to deal with.
Now? They are freaking out about the cold snap because it is in the 20s!
Me? I'm cranky because later today I have to go out, and I'm gonna have to chip my car out of it's cozy jacket of ice before I can drive it anywhere. We very rarely got ice in Rhinelander and I didn't miss it up there.
Get yourself a windshield cover. They really help with heavy frost and ice.
We are freaking out here weather wise. It "should" be at least -15C (-5F?) and usually 10 to 20 degrees colder than that, for all of Dec and Jan. And the forecast is PLUS numbers... as in, melting! We don't handle THAT very well, as we "never" have that happen.
We are freaking out here weather wise. It "should" be at least -15C (-5F?) and usually 10 to 20 degrees colder than that, for all of Dec and Jan. And the forecast is PLUS numbers... as in, melting! We don't handle THAT very well, as we "never" have that happen.
GoingNorth
Crazy Cat Lady
According to a friend in Rhinelander, it was in the high 40s (F) last week. We hit 60 down here, which plain freaked me out. I actually had to turn the AC on in my car for a few minutes after leaving it parked in the sun for a couple of hours. We also had a thunderstorm during that warm spell.
This is the first week I've actually worn a winter parka. Up until now I've been wearing a fleece lined windbreaker at the most. It was 32 yesterday, which wouldn't have merited the parka if it weren't for the wind. (and hat and gloves)
GoingNorth
Crazy Cat Lady
The worst of the ice missed us. We just got snowed and sleeted all over. The ice stood S and W of us for the most part. We got at .25" of ice at the most.
I was concerned as the property I live on is heavily wooded and between the snow and the high winds, I was worried about trees/limbs coming down and power outages. We survived with power, though I haven't driven around the grounds to see how much damage there is.
I'm only about 6 miles from Lake Michigan, so some of snow we got was Lake Effect as the wind was out of the East.
I was concerned as the property I live on is heavily wooded and between the snow and the high winds, I was worried about trees/limbs coming down and power outages. We survived with power, though I haven't driven around the grounds to see how much damage there is.
I'm only about 6 miles from Lake Michigan, so some of snow we got was Lake Effect as the wind was out of the East.
donna723
Well-Known Member
Last year I got marooned in the house for a week after we had that ice storm. We had at least 2" of hard ice covered with a little bit of snow. It just looked like pretty snow but it wasn't. And my concrete porches had a rock hard coating of ice that just would not melt, no matter what I put on it.
GoingNorth
Crazy Cat Lady
Stu and I lived in TN on the KY border when he was stationed at Ft. Campbell, KY.
I remember the ice storms. I'd never seen anything like that up north. I also have to say that it was less of a culture shock moving to Germany than it was moving to the South from up North.
I remember the ice storms. I'd never seen anything like that up north. I also have to say that it was less of a culture shock moving to Germany than it was moving to the South from up North.
New Leaf
Well-Known Member
OUCH. That is where i would have a hard time with the cold weather, being stuck inside. I like the outdoors. When I have visited back home, in the winter, I get antsy inside, and it seems the heated house really gets to my sinuses. I can't even ride in a heated car. I open the back window for some fresh air!
I give everyone credit, living with the cold, hard winters.
When my Dad was ill, one winter, I spent most of my time, clearing the walkways, mailbox. He didn't have time to set up his little plow, so Mom hired someone to clear the driveway, but that year the snow just kept coming. The plow ended up piling snow up by the front door, so I spent the better part of a day shoveling and heaving the snow away from the entrance.
I must say shoveling snow is darn good exercise!
I do like to be able to go out in the snow, it is so beautiful, sugar coating the trees.
It is nice to sit in front of a crackling fireplace after a hard days work outside.
Keep safe everyone, the weather has been so weird with extreme temperature changes, where my Mom is, 60's at Christmas, now expecting a snow storm.
Bizarre El Nino weather.......
leafy
donna723
Well-Known Member
Thing about getting marooned in the house for a week ... I have FOUR dogs and no fence so I have to take them outside on a leash! That wasn't happening! They might have made it cross the frozen porch and steps but I wouldn't! So for a whole week we were all stuck inside and I followed them around with the carpet shampooer - I had no choice! Then when it finally melted enough for me to get out, I slipped on a stubborn patch of ice by my car and broke my shoulder! But that was very unusual weather for this area. The temperatures go up and down and the two or three snows a year we do get, usually melt off in a day or two. But not last year! What's bad here too is that so many of the roads are winding and curvey. Some are cut in to the sides of hills where you have a solid rock "wall" on one side and a sheer dropoff in to the woods on the other. And when it snows, it will partially melt off of the road but not in the shady spots and that will refreeze to slick ice when the temps drop at night.
New Leaf
Well-Known Member
Oh my goodness! That is hard. When Mom had a dog (she lives in a seniors community) they had a designated "doggy" area, down the street from her place. Now, I understand how it can get yucky with pee and poo, in the winter, but how the heck did they think seniors were supposed to traverse in the cold, slippery weather, to get their dogs to that place, silly. Moms dog passed, sadly, but she will not have another one, because of this.....Donna, you must have been endlessly cleaning up after your dogs!
Ooooh, that is painful, I am sorry.
That is scary. Do take care this winter. Hope it is not as bad this year....
leafy
BusynMember
Well-Known Member
GN. I am sorry you had to go out. I have been going out every day, trying to reclaim life again after accident, but today I stayed inside. I had no idea that we got less ice here than down further south in Wisconsin.
Nothing is worse than an ice storm for driving!!!! ICK!
