North Texas Weather

[Idaho Mule]

What is this "snow" you folks speak of ????? JW

[TXGunNut]

Well, in the last 30 minutes we've had over an inch of snow. That's on top of a steady freezing rain/sleet since about 5P. May have 3-6 inches by sunrise. In my part of TX we go for years without measurable snowfall. Not a big deal for many parts of the country but folks around here go absolutely bonkers when the ground turns white. I have a rock-solid 4X4 with all the recovery equipment I'll ever need but I think I'll drink coffee or load rifle rounds in the morning.

[David2011]

I feel for ya. Your weather came from where I live. We're experiencing the same thing in West Texas and SE New Mexico. I've driven many miles on snowpack. It's no big deal once you learn. We've had mostly ice followed by snow. That's a whole different deal; way more dangerous. The company I work for has lots of permanently overweight permitted tractor trailer units that have 3 and 4 trailer axles and weigh upward of 100,000 lb. We shut down at the first sign of ice because the heavy trucks are so difficult to control in the hilly country west of Hobbs. It rained much of the day and then dropped well below freezing. We've already been told not to move company vehicles until 10 AM tomorrow morning when upper 20s and sun are forecast. It will melt and dry fast.

Worst thing is trying to get the slab in the shop warm again after it gets this cold- under 20* F. I insulated the heck out of the walls but once the concrete is cold, it's just COLD. When we win the lottery the shop will be much closer to the Gulf of Mexico and have a heated slab.

David

[TXGunNut]

I'm certainly sleeping in tomorrow. Been monitoring a family member's trek home from the Fleetwood Mac concert in Dallas but they're home safe and I can toddle off now. No sense in getting out there too early tomorrow. By sunrise it will be a polished mess, before that too hard to assess. My truck only has liability insurance on it, not willing to buy a new one anytime soon.

[historicfirearms]

Being born and raised in Michigan, we get more than our fair share of snow. Only occasionally do we get an ice storm. I would much rather drive on any type of snow than drive on ice. My big gripe is when the road commission puts down salt while its snowing. It turns the stuff into slush which can really pull your vehicle around.

[10x]

For those who are not used to driving on ice, or in deep snow, slow down. There's nothing out there worth dying for. I drive a truck 320 to 400 miles a day in this ****, and things can happen unexpectedly, beyond your control, and real fast.

There is a real difference between 5 months of winter driving and two hours of freezing rain resulting in black ice.
Folks in the warmer climes usually rely on all season tires. An all season tire is useless on black ice. I have two sets of skins for my Toyota Tundra. The top line all season tires will not even begin to stop a Tundra in snow covered ice. The lack of traction of an all season radial makes the ABS system useless tripling the stopping distance over the same conditions when a quality winter tire would allow a stop in a reasonable distance.
The same is true of Chevs with ABS - don't know about Ford and Dodge.
Icy covered road with a layer of water on it is one of the slickest surfaces one can drive on. I recall driving from Calgary Alberta to Banff and hitting freezing rain with black ice. There was a ice free portion on the right lane and any auto that got into the left lane kept on going into the median ditch due the crown on the road.
The first uphill grade stopped traffic dead when a grey hound bus spun out in the right lane.
I can not praise the Weed V bar chains that I carried with me enough. I put them on, used 2 bungee cords on each side to keep them tight and very carefully pulled into the left lane and idled past the lineup at about 5 mph. A chain on a front tire would have helped considerably.
A half down the road (about 3 miles) we hit salted and sanded pavement at an intersection where a government sand truck did a U turn from the east bound lane and headed back west.

There are some road conditions that no level of driving skill can beat. About 6 years ago on my way to a funeral I felt the rear tires break loose for a few seconds when I took my foot off of the gas . I was traveling at 55 miles an hour. I regained control by pushing in the clutch and recovered. I coasted down to about 35 mph at which point all four wheels lost traction. The result was the pickup did a slow mo head for the ditch over the next five seconds.
A Ford Ranger 4X4 can travel about 35 yards of 2 foot deep snow when you hit it at 35 mph.
The next vehicle along slid into the ditch about 20 yards from mine, luckily he was going slower than me.
It took almost a half hour to clean out the snow packed into the engine compartment once out of the ditch.

That the individual driving the body job recovered is a remarkable combination of chance and driving skill.

Check this out

[MaryB]

I have never had ice or snow put me in the ditch by accident. I have gone on purpose to avoid people though. Worst was seeing the back end of a semi trailer jackknifing into my lane and my only choice was the shoulder with a 4 foot packed drift. I launched my old GMC Jimmy over it and managed to land back on the road somehow. I stopped, picked up the truck driver and the car load that had been following me that was now wedged under the trailer and took them into the next town and waited with them for the Highway Patrol to pick them up. This was pre-cell phone era so I called it on on my ham rig and told them to close the road. It was the beginning of yet another snow storm that year and the road ended up closed for 3 days until things settled back down and they could get out with a dozer to push the snow back and a front end loader to help. Took both of them chained together to get the semi back on the road and out of the snow. Winter of 96/97 is one that went down in history here with 98 inches of snow total and drifts to 30 feet.

[NavyVet1959]

I was on a back road one day during an ice storm. There was a slight hill and the idiot in front of me slowed down before the hill and as such, did not have enough momentum to make it up the hill with the very minimal traction that the rubber had on the ice. Well, that meant that I had to slow down and since he got stuck in the middle of the road, I had to stop. I put my car in park and walked over to his car to see if I could help by pushing his car up the hill. As his car started sliding backwards, I looked over at my car and it was starting to slowly slide backwards and into the ditch. Of course, I run over to it and grabbed onto the bumper in the mistaken notion that I could somehow stop its travel towards the ditch. No such luck -- I had no traction, so I was dragged across the ice into the ditch while holding onto the car.

[10x]

I have never had ice or snow put me in the ditch by accident. I have gone on purpose to avoid people though.

snip
.

Your turn is coming. It took me over 50 years of driving to hit road conditions that I recognized were very poor, and had slowed down to half the speed limit (35 mph) and was hoping to slow down even more when the crown of the road and the slippery road surface removed any chance of control. I was very aware of the speed I was traveling, I was going slow enough to be able to check the speedometer several times on the way into the ditch. Just feathering the brakes would drop the speedo to zero in a wheel lock up. ABS quits working when all four wheels have lost traction completely.
35 mph on a straight stretch of road, coasting with the clutch in, no response to steering, not one wheel with traction - it takes a long time to slide off the road.
My only consolation was the next guy along was going just as fast, slowing down, and punched into the snow filled ditch stopping some 20 yards from my pickup.

From the time I lost control I had plenty of time to try to recover, at least 6 to 8 seconds. Nothing worked. It was a 200 yard slow slide out of my lane to the shoulder of the road. I lost control at 35 mph, at about 30 mph the passenger tires caught the crusty snow covering the last 2 feet of the shoulder of the road.
I was hoping that crusty snow would give the passenger tires enough traction to stop the slow side sideways. It turned out to be just as slippery as the road.
2 seconds later the tires caught the snow in the ditch and any hope of recovery was gone.

I have gone over the memory of this many times and have decided that every once in a while you get into a situation where you ride it out with the hopes of living through it.

[10x]

I was on a back road one day during an ice storm. There was a slight hill and the idiot in front of me slowed down before the hill and as such, did not have enough momentum to make it up the hill with the very minimal traction that the rubber had on the ice. Well, that meant that I had to slow down and since he got stuck in the middle of the road, I had to stop. I put my car in park and walked over to his car to see if I could help by pushing his car up the hill. As his car started sliding backwards, I looked over at my car and it was starting to slowly slide backwards and into the ditch. Of course, I run over to it and grabbed onto the bumper in the mistaken notion that I could somehow stop its travel towards the ditch. No such luck -- I had no traction, so I was dragged across the ice into the ditch while holding onto the car.

Once watched a fellow slow to a stop at the crest of a long downhill stretch of pavement. There was black ice on the pavement. I had left enough distance where I was able to stop without hitting him. He got out of his car, and walked in front of it where he fell down and then slid down the highway on his butt till he got out of sight over the crest of the hill.
I sacrificed two of the sandbags I carried for traction weight to dust a track of sand on the ice about a foot wide in the part of the lane where the passenger wheel would travel to the bottom of the hill. Both of us walked up the hill on the sand trail I had left.
The slow drive to the bottom was tense but uneventful.

Red Foreman was an advocate of kitty litter for traction.
It has been my habit to carry 200 to 250 lb of sandbags over the rear axle of any pickup I drive. It gives a smoother ride, gives weight to the driving tires and there is less wheel slip in heavy wet snow.
My wife took my pickup on a ski trip to Marmot basin yesterday morning. As I was packing baggage and skis into the box she asked "Where are the tire chains?" That was the point where she explained to the three ladies with her what tire chains were and why folks should have them in the winter.
She then told me about the ski trip with my sons to Marmot where the road to the upper parking lot was too slippery to get up. , the lower parking lot was filled and she and my sons put the tire chains on to gain access to 800 empty parking spots - where she picked the choice spot that you could ski from the Van down to the chalet, get passes, and then at the end of the day , ski to the door of the Van.
I miss that '83 Dodge Royale with the 318.

[dragon813gt]

Ice shuts everything down for good reason. There are to many hills here to attempt driving on it. If it's bad enough parked cars have broken free and slid down the hills. That always creates a mess.

Almost everything was closed here yesterday. Ended up w/ close to 10" of snow and it came down all day. The roads were a mess because the plows couldn't keep up. I live in a one square mile town and the Boro has six plow trucks plus two backhoes for the cul-de-sacs. Even when fully capable there is nothing you can do.

The really great part is that every township is out of salt. Plenty available but it has to be picked up at the Port of Philadelphia. No one wants to pay overtime to go get it. So the roads are horrible this morning.

Even though people should know how to drive in these conditions they don't. It's like they forget every year. Was at my friends's house yesterday and he lives on one of the main roads through town. It's a pretty steep hill that levels off in a few spots. People doing sixty, speed limit is 25, up it and trying to make a turn just led to slamming into the curbs. People were going way to fast down it as well. The street and stop sign on the corner of his property are gone once again. Happens every storm because people are idiots.

[waksupi]

This winter, many are finding out all season tires, AIN'T! It sounds like a great business opportunity for me. I run studded tires all around, and drive on pure ice getting on and off this mountain pretty much all winter, as do my neighbors. Very seldom is anyone in the ditch. No problem.
I could load up on milk and bread, go door to door, and sell for $20 each!
I also keep a pair of studded boots handy, so I can walk on ice.

[10x]

This winter, many are finding out all season tires, AIN'T!

snip.

That is A - FACT

[MaryB]

Nahhh nothing worth dying over to get me to drive on ice anymore. I watch the weather, if a storm is moving in I make sure I have all the supplies I need and stay home! If bad weather is forecast and I have to make a trip I postpone it. Not worth it anymore when I don't have to be out there to earn a paycheck getting to work.

Your turn is coming. It took me over 50 years of driving to hit road conditions that I recognized were very poor, and had slowed down to half the speed limit (35 mph) and was hoping to slow down even more when the crown of the road and the slippery road surface removed any chance of control. I was very aware of the speed I was traveling, I was going slow enough to be able to check the speedometer several times on the way into the ditch. Just feathering the brakes would drop the speedo to zero in a wheel lock up. ABS quits working when all four wheels have lost traction completely.
35 mph on a straight stretch of road, coasting with the clutch in, no response to steering, not one wheel with traction - it takes a long time to slide off the road.
My only consolation was the next guy along was going just as fast, slowing down, and punched into the snow filled ditch stopping some 20 yards from my pickup.

From the time I lost control I had plenty of time to try to recover, at least 6 to 8 seconds. Nothing worked. It was a 200 yard slow slide out of my lane to the shoulder of the road. I lost control at 35 mph, at about 30 mph the passenger tires caught the crusty snow covering the last 2 feet of the shoulder of the road.
I was hoping that crusty snow would give the passenger tires enough traction to stop the slow side sideways. It turned out to be just as slippery as the road.
2 seconds later the tires caught the snow in the ditch and any hope of recovery was gone.

I have gone over the memory of this many times and have decided that every once in a while you get into a situation where you ride it out with the hopes of living through it.

[MaryB]

Studded tires are no longer legal in MN. But people here are used to weather and if it is going to be bad the stores will be packed the day before as people load up on bread and milk and whatever else they need to hunker down and wait it out. I just shop my pantry unless I am low on coke or something I don't keep in bulk.

[NavyVet1959]

This winter, many are finding out all season tires, AIN'T!

Awh, they're probably "all season" if you live in Hawaii, or South Florida / The Keys.

[ffries61]

So that's what happened to my Amazon order !

Well, in the last 30 minutes we've had over an inch of snow. That's on top of a steady freezing rain/sleet since about 5P. May have 3-6 inches by sunrise. In my part of TX we go for years without measurable snowfall. Not a big deal for many parts of the country but folks around here go absolutely bonkers when the ground turns white. I have a rock-solid 4X4 with all the recovery equipment I'll ever need but I think I'll drink coffee or load rifle rounds in the morning.

[TXGunNut]

So that's what happened to my Amazon order !

Quite possibly. One of their "fulfillment centers" is close to where I work. Also FedEx and UPS are having huge issues at their Memphis locations so it may be a combination of the two.
Spent the morning watching the ice melt today. Hope we're done with this mess for awhile but I know better than to make any predictions. Tomorrow looks like a good enough range day. Guess I better go load some boolits.

[NavyVet1959]

Quite possibly. One of their "fulfillment centers" is close to where I work.

I think I might have stumbled across that location when I was in Dallas recently. I was over by DFW and driving around wasting some time. Eventually stumbled across a pretty good BBQ joint called "Hard Eight BBQ" in a small town called "Coppell" that had such an overpowering smell even though I had the windows rolled up on the car that I just *had* to stop. Somewhere around there, I saw a large Amazon building. That's also why Amazon now charges sales tax to purchases made in Texas.

[TXGunNut]

I think I might have stumbled across that location when I was in Dallas recently. I was over by DFW and driving around wasting some time. Eventually stumbled across a pretty good BBQ joint called "Hard Eight BBQ" in a small town called "Coppell" that had such an overpowering smell even though I had the windows rolled up on the car that I just *had* to stop. Somewhere around there, I saw a large Amazon building. That's also why Amazon now charges sales tax to purchases made in Texas.

I thought it was in Haslet or another of those towns that run together in that area, hard to tell where one stops and the next starts. I suspect Amazon charges sales tax in most states where it's collected, I have no idea how many "fulfillment" centers they have around the country but I'd be surprised if it were less than a dozen.