The fun starts tonight with snow, followed by more snow, sleet, and freezing rain. The icy crap will knock the snow accumulations down - we may see anywhere from three to five inches hereabouts, plenty enough to build a Snow-Golem - but will make the roads far more treacherous. And if enough ice coats trees and power lines, power outages will follow just as lobbyists follow politicians.
Those of us who lived in Atlanta twenty-nine years ago will remember the infamous Snow Jam ’82 in early January. Three inches of snow, a nice layer of ice laid down by a night of freezing rain, and another three inches of snow the next day. With the snowfall having begun mid-afternoon on a Tuesday, the late-afternoon commute became a nightmare of snarled traffic, wrecks, and abandoned vehicles. I was able to make it home - a seven-mile trip - in a mere two and a half hours, and I considered myself lucky. We were confined to the subdivision from that Tuesday until the following Saturday morning, thanks to the combination of hills and icy roads that surrounded our neighborhood.
This time, at least, the forecasters seem to be on top of things. Maybe even too much on top of things. With all the breathless predictions of record snowfall (they’ve since backed off a bit, citing an earlier changeover to sleet that will mean less snow accumulation but more of that pesky ice), you’d think the Frosty A-Fucking-Pocalypse was on its way to town.
In my experience, the more dire the prediction, the less significant the storm. Still, you never know... and I’m certainly not planning to be on the roads. Even absent the hordes of moronic Southern drivers, you still have to deal with Mr. Frozen Overpass, Mr. Tree, Mr. Utility Pole, and Mr. Ditch, none of whom are especially friendly when you encounter them at speed.
Update: As of 9:30 p.m., no snow has fallen here in Marietta. It’s a different story just east of downtown, however, where The Mistress of Sarcasm reports two inches on the ground already.
Update 2: 9:45 p.m. - it has begun. Big time... as close to a whiteout as I’ve seen hereabouts in a long, long time.
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3 comments:
Hope you have a generator in case your power goes out in the ice storm. Last time we had one (January 2009) we were without power for 9 days. Fun and games.
At the risk of giving myself an ayin ha-ra - the old Evil Eye - I'll say that it's relatively unusual for us to lose power in our neighborhood, since the power lines run underground. Of course, in a bad ice storm, all bets are off.
The power has to get from the Majik Electrik place to the underground somehow and that somehow involves wire hanging from some kind of supports. Except in Dimocrat land where all Electrickery is made from sugar drops and fluffy Unicorn farts.
A small generator setting in the back yard provides enough power via an extension cord to keep the freezer below zero and a light or two during the night. The freezer and fridge are the important ones, though, as a propane camp stove and a kerosene lamp or two will provide hot food, water and lighting.
Gerry N.
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