I have had enough of this %#&@& winter.

[badwhale]

That sucks Will , I don't to wad it up or some dumbass rear end me.

I hear ya. I usually put mine away for winter to avoid the salt. Inadvertently, it just stays away because the garage it's in, is across town.

[TheGreekTitan]

Ice storm in Atlanta? I hate those.

I don't know how much press we've gotten nationally, or internationally for that matter. But, yeah it is awful.

My wife left her office just before 1:00 yesterday. What is normally a 15 to 20 minute commute took her over 9 1/2 hours. Yep, almost 10 hours to go just over 7 miles.

I lost contact with her when her phone died at about 8:30. I impatiently waited for about an hour, then couldn't take it any more. I packed a backpack with some clothes, boots, hat, scarf, etc for her. I added some protein bars, water and a flask of Beam. Checked and adjusted the tire pressure on my mountain bike. Began to get changed to ride and find her, then walk her home. When....click...deadbolt open...she didn't have time to get the knob unlocked, as I was on it. Thank God!

We drank the whisky (which she hates, but Loved last night). We made some French onion soup, and drank beer.

[cinda]

OMG I always liked you, and all knights in shining armor.

But you are making the news big time. What I do not get is you all freak out when you hear it might be 40 or so why oh why when you all knew what was coming your way didn't you keep your kids home and make sure you could last at least 3 days without having to leave your house. Now I am not saying you personal did anything wrong because your wife was pretty close home but by in large you all are the biggest baby's when it comes to the cold weather how did that amount of people not be frighten of what was predicated? Anyhow all I could do is shake my head in dismay, but maybe I do not know the real story.

[kevin7]

Cinda I have to be at work no matter the weather. You know I work for a power company and no excuse besides sickness is really acceptable during times of storm. As predicted in this snow I was doing 30 mph going to work and some invincible douchebag in a Tahoe was on my ass and passed me in a double yellow line,of course i drifted to the left a little

[craig]

Glad to hear you and wife are safe and sound. Stories are coming out now.

Cinda, there was a big scare down there a few weeks ago, schools were closed etc., but nothing happened.

People in charge were roasted for that, so those people didn't move fast enough this time. Last time there was serious snow was 1973, I just read.

This was 2" of snow and ice, so not a true ice storm. (Ice storm = power lines/trees down everywhere, linemen from everywhere going there and working continuously, etc.) However, that's 2" of snow and ice in freakin Atlanta, not here (where my front yard now has over 7 feet of snow), so you are going to get transportation paralysis.

Meanwhile, Chicago is still frozen, I hear.

[TheGreekTitan]

A big part of the problem was that an estimated 1.1 million people got on the roads at the same time.

I grew up in New York and have no problem driving in those conditions. The reason I got the bike ready was because there was nowhere to drive. Every street in both directions (including emergency lanes) was blocked for miles. Even if you had a zamboni you weren't going anywhere.

Thanks for the thoughts Craig and Cinda. Honestly, my wife was the hero though. She was born here, and has seen less snow in her lifetime as I saw in most winters growing up. She began to panic a few times, but was receptive to reason and did an awesome job getting herself home. I wish everyone was able to do the same.

[badwhale]

I had one of those "where's my wife" moments tonight. Not fun, and we weren't even having an ice storm etc.

[cinda]

Glad to hear you and wife are safe and sound. Stories are coming out now.

Cinda, there was a big scare down there a few weeks ago, schools were closed etc., but nothing happened.

People in charge were roasted for that, so those people didn't move fast enough this time. Last time there was serious snow was 1973, I just read.

This was 2" of snow and ice, so not a true ice storm. (Ice storm = power lines/trees down everywhere, linemen from everywhere going there and working continuously, etc.) However, that's 2" of snow and ice in freakin Atlanta, not here (where my front yard now has over 7 feet of snow), so you are going to get transportation paralysis.

Meanwhile, Chicago is still frozen, I hear.

See I did not know that information and now it makes more sense. We have been caught like that here a few times too but we take our lumps accordantly. We are just lucky it doesn't make the national news because it's just what happens here.

Kevin I don't take you as big baby because of snow and if there any one with the right equipment to get the job done right it's you honey! :)

[illilli]

I just wanted to add that those Southern states don't have the cold-weather equipment that we have North and East. They probably don't have any salt trucks.

[TheGreekTitan]

Snip...As predicted in this snow I was doing 30 mph going to work and some invincible douchebag in a Tahoe was on my ass and passed me in a double yellow line,of course i drifted to the left a little

Ya big BULLY!

[ggiese]

I just wanted to add that those Southern states don't have the cold-weather equipment that we have North and East. They probably don't have any salt trucks.

No plows - no salt trucks - nothing...

A couple years ago I was in Charlotte when a ice storm came through. Frankly - it was absolutely comical to me. The roads really weren't bad at all - but the local folks were all freaked out. Schools, businesses - damned near everything was shut down. They interrupted regular programming (even cut in on the news) to provide updates on the ice storm.

My favorite story about that experience - some boneheaded local reporter was broadcasting a story about how bridges freeze first and are especially hazardous. He was standing on the bridge with semi's buzzing by him. The most insane part of the story was when he knelt down in the roadway and pressed a thermometer against the pavement to show it was at the point of freezing - with semis buzzing by blowing their horns at him for blocking the road...

My experience with Atlanta is that traffic is generally very messed up during the evening rush even on bright, sunny warm summer's days. It took me 45 minutes to drive less than a mile from my office to the hotel. And folks were doing the craziest things - like forcing their way through gridlocked traffic. The damned traffic is at a dead standstill and a few of these chowderheads apparently believe the best way to get traffic moving is to blow the horn and go against the flow. I seriously thought Chicago traffic was the worst - until I saw that nonsense in Atlanta. Now I completely appreciate my fellow drivers here when the only flip me off in traffic...

[TheGreekTitan]

6 more weeks!

[CptnBlues63]

6 more weeks!

I don't put much faith in anything predicted by a rodent. Regardless of what he predicted last year, we still got snow in May.

But, there is an ape who predicts the super bowl................so who knows *shrug*

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireSto...inner-22294762

[cinda]

Yesterday this storm we have right now was suppose to be a few inches of light snow. It's by far extremely heavy and much more then 2 inches my thinking is 6 to 8 once it's done . what a mess!

[kingbeefy]

Yesterday this storm we have right now was suppose to be a few inches of light snow. It's by far extremely heavy and much more then 2 inches my thinking is 6 to 8 once it's done . what a mess!

Similar thing happened to us last week, just on a much smaller scale. The weather humans here said we might see light flurries, resulting in a dusting, beginning at 10am last Tuesday and ending at around 4pm. It started pretty steady at 9am and ended at 9pm and left 3-4 inches. Around here, 3-4 inches is a big deal, especially when it wasn't expected.

I wonder what the average income is for a meteorologist? I feel extremely solid in "bad guessing" skills. I am very easily wrong more than I am right. It seems like that's a career path that might suit me well.

[ashauler]

We're supposed to get hammered tonight and tomorrow.....6-9" by the time it's over, I'm betting on 4-6. The problem will be the 30-40 mph winds that will undoubtedly accompany the snow.

[craig]

I worked in meteorological services research a long time ago.

BTW, the storm was predicted (which is why I knew about it). You listened to the wrong meteorologists. :-)

Today's hint: The best forecasts are probably still done by the government/military, and those forecasts are the ones done for airports (only). The ice storm warning I saw was for Hartsfield and was issued Monday for Tuesday.

Private services like Accuweather and the Weather Channel will probably give better current local conditions (other than at the airport, of course). Other than that, my advice would be to go with local airport forecasts/conditions and look at the radar over the past few hours.

[illilli]

I concur about the military weather. They use their own models and they have variants as well. A friend of mine in the Air Force was a meteorologist and told me that it was all quite complex. (Same thing Sanitation Engineers say...whatever.)

As a "supposed" SETI Researcher, I "might" have access to everything in the government, including military weather reports. This is a nice time to visit A51 for example, I guess.

"Anyone ever say to themselves, 'Where are Areas 1-50??'"

[badwhale]

We had marginal fun in the snow today.

Finally got the snowblower running correctly, however mine is somewhat crappy (it was free) and it gets clogged with th is type of snow. Had to keep using a stick to clean the thrower chute out.
Anyway, we made a snowman, I worked from home for most of the day, and we did some sledding.

This shit was really heavy.

I'm working on a room upstairs, and I threw a bunch of pieces of the old linoleum floor out the upstairs window onto a tarp. Of course, I wasn't aware there was a storm coming, as it was relatively warm, and not precipitating when I went to bed last night. Needless to say, all that shit was covered with snow today, and it was a PITA to get it down under the porch where I was intending to put it. Alas.

[CoventryCat86]

My experience with Atlanta is that traffic is generally very messed up during the evening rush even on bright, sunny warm summer's days. It took me 45 minutes to drive less than a mile from my office to the hotel. And folks were doing the craziest things - like forcing their way through gridlocked traffic. The damned traffic is at a dead standstill and a few of these chowderheads apparently believe the best way to get traffic moving is to blow the horn and go against the flow. I seriously thought Chicago traffic was the worst - until I saw that nonsense in Atlanta. Now I completely appreciate my fellow drivers here when the only flip me off in traffic...

I spent all of 2012 driving to New York City pretty much every day and even in the worst of the worst (mid-town Manhattan at 5:00 pm) the New York drivers are the best I've ever seen, no leaning on the horn, no cutting people off just for the heck of it, etc. Yes, there were a few incidents of people behaving badly but on a percentage basis, it was extremely minimal.

I've driven in Chicago too George and it wasn't bad. I think the problem in Atlanta is it's infected with too many non-New York northerners.

The weather up here in Nova Scotia has been relatively mild, -6C (21F for you flatlanders). It's supposed to drop to -8C or so over the weekend for a couple of days.