How's the weather? v. 1.1

[Jennifer]

Note for dhex: according to the Weather Channel, parts of New Orleans and nearby Louisiana parishes are under mandatory evacuation for Nate.

[Dangerman]

Damp.

[pistoffnick]

Winter has come. We got about 5 inches of the white stuff and, as usual, people have forgotten how to drive in snow.

[Eric the .5b]

Looks like I'll need my light jacket, tonight. And it might freeze briefly over the weekend

[Jennifer]

This October has been MUCH cooler than last October, in suburban Atlanta -- this time last year I still had the AC on during the day, with open windows at night; now, for several days it's been "No AC and open windows during the day, and sometimes the nights get chilly enough to actually shut the windows." (Of course, my apartment has a weird relationship with heat; being on the top floor of a multi-unit building, it get heated from below even when the heat's not on. At first I thought it was something weird about my specific apartment, or maybe my immediate-downstairs neighbors favor tropical temperatures, but no -- my next-door neighbor told me HE almost never turns HIS heat on, either. All last winter I only needed the heat on one night, for a few hours, during the January cold snap where the temperature dropped down to 15 degrees in the small hours of the morning.)

[Jadagul]

It broke 100 here a couple days ago.

Someone should explain to the weather that it's fall now.

[D.A. Ridgely]

Supposed to hit freezing sometime tonight.

[Ellie]

Winter has come. We got about 5 inches of the white stuff and, as usual, people have forgotten how to drive in snow.

Not to be a worrywort but I'm glad you checked in! I heard on MPR that there had been a couple fatal crashes in the snow, and immediately thought of you and hoped you were alright.

[Jennifer]

It's been downright chilly -- yesterday's high was only in the mid-40s, and as I type this it's 60 degrees outside. Any other place I've ever lived, I'd've had the heat on these past couple of days (and especially nights). Here, though, the heat remains off and my office window is open to let out some excess heat.

[Jennifer]

AAAIGH! IT'S THE APOCALYPSE!!!

Tomorrow, Atlanta might get up to one inch of snow.

http://www.ajc.com/weather/more-cold-ai ... fx0S4u19J/

[Eric the .5b]

AAAIGH! IT'S THE APOCALYPSE!!!

Tomorrow, Atlanta might get up to one inch of snow.

http://www.ajc.com/weather/more-cold-ai ... fx0S4u19J/

You and Jeff may have to kill the taun-taun and crawl inside it. Put down plastic first, and it'll be easier cleanup.

[Sandy]

Yeah, if you thought DC was unprepared for snow...

[Kolohe]

Of the two winters I lived in Georgia, one had one of the biggest snow storms on record, but I was in Park City Utah during it. There was more snow on my car at Hartfield than I saw during my time in Utah.

[Solitudinarian]

El Paso receives a faint dusting of snow. Chaos ensues.

[Jennifer]

I completely understand and agree with the rationale for why Georgia would not have New England-grade snow-removal equipment -- noticeable snow really is a rarity here, and buying, storing and maintaining equipment sufficient for those rare events would not make economic sense. But why the HELL do they not have standard de-icing stuff? Snow may be rare here but icy roads are not; every bridge and overpass in the state has one of those "May freeze in winter" warning signs on it.

This is the second day in a row where if you visit the Atlanta Journal-Constitution webpage, the top story is that the roads are icy so don't go a-drivin'.

[Highway]

De-icing is a difficult operation, and requires pretty much the same equipment in the same scale as snow removal if you're going to do it well. A fleet of yokels in pickup trucks can do a parking lot, but not roadways. And there are significant costs to deicing that are borne by individual citizens and society, either minor like paint chips on your car or significant like body and frame rusting, ranging to pavement and environmental damage.

The signs on bridges are more to remind people that bridges are more prone to freezing than the roadways leading to them. It doesn't mean that they freeze regularly enough to warrant spending on the equipment.

[Jennifer]

De-icing is a difficult operation, and requires pretty much the same equipment in the same scale as snow removal if you're going to do it well. A fleet of yokels in pickup trucks can do a parking lot, but not roadways. And there are significant costs to deicing that are borne by individual citizens and society, either minor like paint chips on your car or significant like body and frame rusting, ranging to pavement and environmental damage.

Sure, but there are also significant costs to NOT deicing -- nobody can go on the roads, if they do there's a high chance they'll spin out of control and only wreck their car if they're lucky, buncha businesses closing due to the aforementioned "Nobody can come out to see us"....

[Highway]

De-icing is a difficult operation, and requires pretty much the same equipment in the same scale as snow removal if you're going to do it well. A fleet of yokels in pickup trucks can do a parking lot, but not roadways. And there are significant costs to deicing that are borne by individual citizens and society, either minor like paint chips on your car or significant like body and frame rusting, ranging to pavement and environmental damage.

Sure, but there are also significant costs to NOT deicing -- nobody can go on the roads, if they do there's a high chance they'll spin out of control and only wreck their car if they're lucky, buncha businesses closing due to the aforementioned "Nobody can come out to see us"....

But it doesn't happen often. And even today, the temperature is over 40 in Atlanta. There's no icing. If people are being over-cautious, then that's fine. People staying home in the snow? That's fine by me. The threat is overstated, and they've obviously made the choice that they don't want to have that level of snow response. It's not like the highway departments of the various government entities there don't know the conditions, both immediate and historically.

[Jennifer]

But it doesn't happen often. And even today, the temperature is over 40 in Atlanta. There's no icing.

It's going below freezing again after dark. The dreaded black ice will return.

People staying home in the snow? That's fine by me.

Works well (for most people) on the weekend when this storm happened to hit, not so much during a workweek. According to the AJC, the roads are going to be icy again during commuting hours tomorrow morning.

[Highway]

Woo! Surprise snow! Thankfully I only have a 3.5 mile trip home. It might take me double the usual time, 20 minutes. I feel bad for my co-workers, tho.

[dhex]

But Maryland drivers handle snow so well.

[Kwix]

Gawd weather is shitty this winter. La de fucking Nina means that our winter will be warm and wet. That translates to "rain and snow in a never ending cycle" instead of our usual "wintry mix in November and then hard frozen 'til March" routine. Glad I bought Dad's old plow truck.

[Jennifer]

By Georgia standards it is brutally cold out today -- only 23 degrees according to Weather-dot-com -- and I might actually have to turn on the heat for the second time since moving in here 18 months ago. (The thermostat in my hallway reads 68 degrees; IIRC in the days when "heat" was a standard winter necessity, I set the thermostat at 67.)

[D.A. Ridgely]

It's 20F outside at the moment, and the worst part of experiencing low temperatures like this in Texas is having to explain altogether too often to some dimwitted global warming denier the difference between weather and climate.

[pistoffnick]

Negative 21 degrees F on Sundee mornin'. The minivan wouldn't go up the slight hill to the main road until it warmed up an additional 15 minutes. The buttons on the gas pump didn't work. Then on the way back down, the antilock brakes kicked in but in slow motion.

There are 3 freighter ships in the bay. They might be staying the winter the way Lake Superior is freezing up.