black ice....

It was -18 degrees this morning at 6:30. By 9 it had warmed up a bit to -9 so Ma and I ran errands. I drove across several areas that were coated with black ice, mostly on highway surfaces, so we slowed down a hair. Good thing too. One fella came down a short hill that enters the highway we were on and broke traction, sliding completely across another roadway before coming onto our lane of travel and finally hitting a snow berm that stopped him. It could have been ugly but fortunately this episode involved only his vehicle. A short drive later going home we were in the center lane of four and approached an on-ramp and acceleration lane on the right of use when some yak driving about 80 coming up the ramp hit the black ice, spun and smacked broadside into a car next and in front of us, then rebounded into a car that had been behind him. All three vehicles ended up against the barrier wall on the far inside lane with atrial of debris flying and skidding everywhere. How I managed to avoid that cracker I don't know and somehow I avoided all the wreckage on the road.

The ticker got a workout. I know that the drivers of the two vehicles he schmucked were ok, but not sure of the speedball. His airbag had deployed, actually it looked like every airbag in the vehicle had fired. His car was a mess and what the impacts with the other two cars didn't mess up on his vehicle the impact with that barrier wall sure did. When he hit the wall the car jumped about 6 feet up. Everything but.

Crazy people....I just don't get it why people can't slow down when driving conditions demand it. The first episode was close enough for me but this 3 car could have killed us as easy as not. Forunately its the latter but I still haven't quite settled down.

I hear ya Tom! Our first blast of real winter with Snow and Ice on the Roads Weeds out a BUNCH of City Folks (Mostly Spokane Wa People) You see several wrecks, Then it seems they disappear until the next year But them first few days of Bad weather is a Good time to Stay at home, if at all possible

You should see the results here on Long Island!

ShawnT said:

You should see the results here on Long Island!

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Hahah! NO THANKS!!

I’m glad your ok. My full size 4x4 goes through mud and snow like a heavy weight lead conical but I still drive slow on nasty roads with people passing me, I just shake my head and hope I don’t see them in the ditch

When I first saw this thread I thought you were gonna talk about this...http://blackicecoatings.com/services/ I have two White muzzleloaders an had my Remington 870 pump .12 guage iced too, but that's
another story.
Glad you survived the idiot drivers, they are out there year around, but snow/ice brings them to the top of the idiots that can't drive. I was a LEO for 27 yrs. an saw my share of them..
Another thing that gets me going is people that don't clean off the snow/ice from the entire vehicle, especially the top an back windows!! Nothing like driving behind one an have a slab of snow/ice fly off an come straight back at you. I still have a chip in my truck windshield from ice off another truck.

It’s almost all in the tires, even a 2WD can be made winter road worthy. I have Blizzacks on my 4WD truck, newer Michelin tires on the CR-V.

Yes, always watching out for the other drivers. I see what’s on many vehicles when walking through a parking lot.

BuckDoeHunter said:

I’m glad your ok. My full size 4x4 goes through mud and snow like a heavy weight lead conical but I still drive slow on nasty roads with people passing me, I just shake my head and hope I don’t see them in the ditch

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BDH, I hear ya here as well! Believe it or not, Some of the ABSOLUTE worst Driving we get around here is City Guy’s in BIG Jacked up Trucks, I wish i had a Dollar for everyone of them i have Seen on their Side, or Top, and the Accidents that they have Caused. The problem is a LOT of them guy’s that Buy a New BIG Fancy 4X4 have very little, to no Clue about Driving in nasty Conditions, and when they finally encounter Snow and Ice Roads They Feel INVINCIBLE to it. The Majority of these Local Folks understand Driving in these conditions VERY Well, it’s a part of Life here

-34 here today....or should I say a while ago this morning. Balmy at -27 now. We're supposed to warm up to near zero with the radical cold out of here by tonight so -10 will feel like a heat wave.
Ma and I ventured over to our Mall yesterday to walk and then Red Lobster to burn up a promo gift card that was going to expire. Our high temp yesterday was -19 on my station at home but the 10:00 nightly weather said the hi was -21....2 degrees doesn't make it much warmer. Its was amazing how much debris had accumulated along the highway on the road home since Sunday's wild ride. We had 8.5" of fluff snow Sunday night and the stuff acts as a polish on that black ice so yesterday in the same trek home as Sunday we counted 23 places where these high speed yokels had come in contact with the outside noise barriers or the concrete center median barricades, pieces and parts all over the place and this was just a two mile stretch. The guys with lift kits in their pick-ups have pretty much gotten over those rigs in the winter, but those with any kind of 4wd and cruise control are problems. Or idiots is maybe a better term.

It's scary to read of these happenings on black ice. Especially those that think they are hot shots and cause issues for others. Please be safe and wrap up. May above 0 come to your area and maybe a nice balmy 32 F or above be out your way.

A few years ago me and a friend were driving home as the temps were dropping. On the highway it was all pretty normal since the roads retained quite a bit of heat still. As we approached a huge bridge going over the Missouri river we saw trouble ahead. Cars were spinning out of control but it was too late to try and stop. Not only does a bridge cool down faster it also gets some of the colder air that is running down the river channel. So it was a double whammy.

Wisely we just continued with a extremely slow deceleration never touching the brakes. Easing up on the accelerator petal very very slowly and never touching the brakes. We made it over that bridge but watched numerous cars lose it. Scared the poop out of both of us.

I drove a tow truck for years and the number one type of person and vehicle i had to pull out was......Soccer moms in 4WD SUVs. They thought the 4WD made them immune to icy conditions.

Most of the people from the city/suburbs that get a 4wd just say I know I can go in the snow now. They don't realize that when you loose it it's all gone! They go great but its the Stopping part they can't fathom. See it all the time here on Long Island. We were at 3* this am with a Real Feel of -18*, so compared to some of you I'm not complaining. Mid week we are supposed to get up to 50*! Crazy winter!

Ha! I was looking at 1 above zero at 5AM. I don't know how many consecutive hours were below zero....about 60 I think. Our -64 windchill on Weds was something else and allowed for about three minutes outside before exposed skin started to burn from the cold. Filling my bird feeders was a trick. I had the feeders full before the bad cold set in but the birds went into heavy feeding mode so I have to give them a bit more.

The crazy thing is I have already heard of another super-charged cold blast coming next week. Like we need it. Why can't the air flow reverse and let Putin enjoy some of this?

When it was really cold grandma would put some rendered fat on the bird seed.

I render my venison fat and mix it with cheap chunky peanut butter, then pour onto forms to make cakes for the cage suet feeders and I keep some in plastic tubs to stuff the holes in my birch suet logs. The finches and Juncos pretty much eat the small thistle seed from the four of those feeders. Four kinds of woodpeckers, two kinds of Nuthatches and Chickadees feed heavy on the venison fat. The cracklings that are left after the fat is rendered from the venison suet go into a cage feeder and the woodpeckers love working on those. From before the sun has risen until its almost too dark to see the feeders, we have birds non stop. Sharp Shinned and Coopers Hawks will become an issue once in a while but a firecracker usually moves them along. Crows might come along but they become target practice and can develop lead poisoning.

Tom,
You all out there definitely had it worse than us. I'm just glad that we have not gotten the snow in the same amounts as the rain we have had, Long Island would just be a big snow mound.

I thought we were below zero in the 60 range but the news tonight says 76 hours below the zero mark. Our record stretch below zero was in 1996 and went for 162 hours is what I believe I heard. Too friggin cold for too long I know that. The hardships put on people in this state with lack of gas to heat homes....that is unbelievable in this day and age. I think when the delivery system was built it was done in a shoddy way and could not handle the demand. I suppose some yak in Texas decided to cut costs by installing smaller diameter delivery pipes here in Minnesota based to some recent warm winters in Oklahoma. I don't envy you guys out East at all Shawn. You've all been plagued with crap weather too. The problem is our weather is getting more and more disruptive in every corner of the globe and its increasingly difficult to know how to prepare for it. I haven't see a day without wind for months, literally.