Comment on Is history about to repeat itself?
jqubed@lemmy.world 2 days ago
No, this year’s storm hit on a weekend, and didn’t really get going in Raleigh until nighttime. Most people stayed home. That year’s storm arrived pretty much as forecast but a lot of people ignored the forecast because a storm forecast a couple weeks earlier had fizzled out. It was around lunchtime on a weekday and everyone thought they could still stay at work and drive home and it wouldn’t be a big deal. Then the snow came quick and heavy and everyone panicked and tried to go home at the same time, unleashing rush hour traffic on bad road conditions with traffic jams blocking the plows from treating the roads.
Forecasts were all over the place, and I actually saw this afternoon radar saying there was heavy snow, a forecast for the time saying it should be raining, and I saw nothing. North Raleigh area got the earlier bit of sleet/ice layer and then maybe an inch of snow, but that's about it.
The shield held. I haven't been out to see the road conditions, but they'll probably be worse the next two nights as we get some melt and then refreeze.
It’s super cool how the Republicans have stopped sharing weather satellite data with weather forecasters and cut the budget for sending up weather balloons. They really govern for the people, ya know?
ickplant@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I love that you provided an actual and substantive answer, thank you!
Fmstrat@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The one thing they left out was school buses. Schools did let out early, but too late, so the traffic from the buses and parents melted the first layer of snow, with no plowing or salting. So it refroze into sheets of ice before people left work.
Source: Me in traffic for 12 hours.
Note: I now live in a place so cold that this week I hiked in -6F and had ice cream outside at 13F. 😃
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 21 hours ago
Why do people do this? It doesn’t look enjoyable.
Fmstrat@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
When it’s cold all the time you adapt (not your body, your behaviors). For instance, when I am outside, I’m moving and working my body, and generally within 10-15 minutes I’m stripping off a layer or two already. People don’t typically stand around in this cold unless they have to.
Even with the ice cream, it was after a ridge hike, and we stood outside for about 15 minutes. After that amount of time your core temp lowers and you start to feel the cold, so you either get moving or get inside. But when I arrived I would have been happy in a T-shirt.