How’s Your Weather?

[nickndfl]

Water is warm and inviting. It's the Fountain of Youth. My joints always feel better after a dip. Too bad it only lasts a day.

 

[Brio]

Woweee have we got weather in BC

Relentless rain in BC causes flooding and road chaos (PHOTOS) | News

100's of vehicles trapped between rock slides, multiple swept into rivers and some buried in mud slides. Every single road from the coast to the interior is shut down. Houses floating down flooding rivers. Wild. My brother went through yesterday on his way S hoping to take the Duffy since every other route was closed, then they had a mudslide and it's closed too!
The only way to get to Vancouver would be to go to Bella Coola and catch a ferry to N Van Isl. But that may not be a good idea as extreme winds are hitting the coast and ferries may shut down.

 

[Unca Walt]

Jeez.

Well, it was chilly here. Herself went outside with long pantses and a sweater. It was 67F. Warmed up now.

 

[Sampson]

I decided to turn around on Monday and get back home while I could. Looks like we will be hunkered down for a few days. No roads left going in or out of town.

First pic is the hwy I made it through an hour before they closed it and second pic is a pano of what the area looks like from above.

 

[Avalon]

We spent a few days at Chimney Rock NC. It was glorious weather. It was mid 60s during the day and near freezing at night. Our winter doesn't really start here in the Piedmont till December. For those of you who live in really cold climates how do you handle it?

 

[Brio]

Wow Sampson, did you get lucky! Or smart. Or both lol. My brother is stuck in Cache Creek. I just got back from filling up the car (already rumors of t.p. shortages, did people learn nothing last year?), no telling how long before those roads are open. The Coq is out for a while that's certain.
5-7 vehicles buried under mudslide on the Duffy. I can't imagine ...
Crews search for cars trapped by B.C. mudslides

 

[Brio]

For those of you who live in really cold climates how do you handle it?

No bad weather only bad clothing. lol. You acclimatize to the weather. I never go anywhere without blankets, first aid kit, extra clothing. Haven't needed it but would sure suck to need it and not have. Like those people trapped, news said 300-400 vehicles (est)

 

[Sampson]

Wow Sampson, did you get lucky! Or smart. Or both lol.

I think it was a little bit of both. I'm a stubborn guy and figured I could get a days work in before they closed the road. Then I saw the highways trucks talking with the rcmp at one overpass and decided it was time to get back home to my family.

I'm stubborn, but not sure I'm as stubborn as this guy.

 

[Joe King]

^^^^ Wow, that guy is cRaZy! Literally.
He could so easily ride straight into deep and moving water without any warning. Then get swept away to drown.

 

[Casey Jones]

Why wasn't he using the shoulder of the road?

He wouldn't get half a mile before falling over of exhaustion.

 

[Joe King]

Why wasn't he using the shoulder of the road?

Because he's cRaZy!

 

[Sampson]

Why wasn't he using the shoulder of the road?

That service road runs about 10 or 15 miles alongside the highway between overpasses. The ditch between the highway and the service road is at least 10 or 12 feet deep. Usually, it is much safer to ride the service road than the highway.

He probably rode about 5 miles from the last overpass before he got to the water and started into it figuring it wasn't that deep. I'm guessing he kept going until he figured he was pot committed and couldn't turn back.

Worse comes to worse and he just ditches his bike and swims the hundred feet to the highway across the ditch. Assuming he had enough energy left by then.

Either way, the flooding up here is nuts and still getting deeper. It is making people do strange things. The grocery stores were lined up around the buildings and the gas stations are running out of fuel.

Sounds like there might not be roads in or out for a few more days so me and mine are just hunkering down and enjoying our extra time together.

Pic from a friend a few hours ago from the biggest grocery store in town.

 

[Cigarlover]

I'm Stubborn too. I never have a fire until at least Nov. So far this month have had 3 fires, usually for an hr or 2 in the morning.
Last night was 34 outside. House cleaner that lives a few houses down came up to work this morning. She was freezing at her place and I'm sitting in my place in shorts and a T shirt.

We haven't had a winter with a lot of snow in quite a while so we are due. Hopefully this year.

You guys out west stay safe. I know most on here are probably prepared. Watch out for the loonies though.

 

[Avalon]

No bad weather only bad clothing. lol. You acclimatize to the weather. I never go anywhere without blankets, first aid kit, extra clothing. Haven't needed it but would sure suck to need it and not have. Like those people trapped, news said 300-400 vehicles (est)

You are made of tougher stuff than I am. Maybe its my Greek blood but I love summer and function well in the heat. Cold winter weather kills me. I already know if I'm going to be homeless ill need to go farther south. I can't imagine having months and months of winter and constant snow. Raleigh made the news when we were crippled by 1 inch of snow. This really happens here. Many of those cars stayed on Glenwood avenue for days till the snow melted and I got stuck at the hospital for 4 days. At least we got some good memes out of the situation. This must look absurd to you guys from up north.

 

[Casey Jones]

At least we got some good memes out of the situation. This must look absurd to you guys from up north.

I've made a study of it. I've lived in the extremes - San Diego; Denver; Buffalo, Houston.

What it comes down to, really, is infrastructure - equipment and manpower. Take my little corner of Western New York...50 miles from Buffalo; eight miles from the Lake Erie shoreline. The "Snow Belt." This village, Mayville, gets over 250 inches of snow a year.

That's heavy tunes. They have huge Oshkosh snowplows with wing plows, but those aren't even the biggest. Ever seen a roadgoing rotary snowplow? It's like a giant Gravely snowblower, mounted to the front of an Oshkosh. In back, where the loadbed would be, is a second diesel engine, just for driving that snowblower. Running one is a two-man crew; and it's a real menace to anything on the side of the road. Including little kids or pets.

Towards February, the snowpack can be over two feet. Drifts, which stay because the temperature doesn't get above freezing, over four feet.

Okay. Compare that to Houston, where, Christmas 1981, I was working on a construction team. Me and 15 Mexicans. I kid you not...I was the interloper, the white face to talk with property owners, city officials, anyone else. One other guy spoke English, and he did it pidgin.

Christmas Eve Houston got a rare winter storm. Started about noon...it was bitter cold for Texas, low 30s, temperature falling, and then the snow started. We spent the afternoon around a burn barrel, eating and telling stories...Mario would translate back and forth for me. But at four, we got the word: Knock off, go home.

We were in three trucks. I had driven a snowplow in my New York life, so I knew how to get through an inch of snow, even with an ice sheen on the roads. Nobody else did...the roads were greasy as snot, and everyone was just mashing the gas. With predictable results.

Then, decades later...Denver. Denver's in the news every winter for its storms...why don't they have the equipment to deal with them?

Because the news LIES. Denver weather is actually pretty temperate - I'd put it on a level with Nashville. It's just that the thin air and mountain proximity, leads to dramatic weather changes. They get maybe one severe storm a year, and that's it.

For that, it doesn't make sense to buy a fleet of Oshkosh plow trucks with huge vee-plows. So they tough it out...the locals go home and stay home; but of course the tourists think they can just bust through the storm, same as in Ohio.

No, they can't. They'll be a week re-opening the Interstate. And if you didn't find a way to get out of your car and into shelter, they'll find you there, too.

So...it comes down to, what are the local road crews used to, and what equipment do they have.

 

[Brio]

This must look absurd to you guys from up north.

I think what's absurd is people know the roads are bad and drive them anyways. I remember driving into Vancouver, 4x4, studded winter tires, weight in the back, doing 60kmh on icy roads and the cars with summer tires flying past me doing 100. I really want to move to the coast, what snow they do get is gone by lunch.

 

[Avalon]

I think what's absurd is people know the roads are bad and drive them anyways. I remember driving into Vancouver, 4x4, studded winter tires, weight in the back, doing 60kmh on icy roads and the cars with summer tires flying past me doing 100. I really want to move to the coast, what snow they do get is gone by lunch.

To be fair to us locals we do not get snow on the roads most of the time. We get ice. If you don't have a vehicle that can handle ice you are in trouble.

 

[Brio]

To be fair to us locals we do not get snow on the roads most of the time. We get ice. If you don't have a vehicle that can handle ices you are in trouble.

Yup, that warm snow compacts into ice in a second. When it's -30 it's not slippery at all.

 

[Unca Walt]

^^^^ Wow, that guy is cRaZy! Literally.
He could so easily ride straight into deep and moving water without any warning. Then get swept away to drown.

I was duck hunting -- walking through flooded land toward some high ground. It was below freezing, but the knee-deep water had not yet frozen. I was about 1/2 mile from my car when I did not notice there was no grass above the water just ahead of me!

Stepped off into about 12' of freezing water. *GLORP*

Was so shocked... I swam across the hidden creek. Climbed up, and my brain came back on line. Knew I had to jump in again, swim across, and race to my car (that did NOT have functioning heater, BTW).

Well, I died, fellas. [/Kit Carson]

 

[Unca Walt]

About snow. It was about 50 years ago that Atlanta got snow. You know how many snowplow trucks the City of Atlanta has? Yup...

What a mess.

 

[DodgebyDave]

it was only a few years ago that Atlanta received 2 inches of snow.........there were folks stranded on the interstate and walked away.........

I wrote an epic poem about it

 

[Brio]

Well the grocery stores here are completely cleaned out and it's been two days.

 

[tigerwillow1]

My first job out of college was in Houston. First winter there they got 1/4 inch of snow and closed the freeways. I was in utter disbelief.

 

[newmisty]

Woweee have we got weather in BC

Relentless rain in BC causes flooding and road chaos (PHOTOS) | News

100's of vehicles trapped between rock slides, multiple swept into rivers and some buried in mud slides. Every single road from the coast to the interior is shut down. Houses floating down flooding rivers. Wild. My brother went through yesterday on his way S hoping to take the Duffy since every other route was closed, then they had a mudslide and it's closed too!
The only way to get to Vancouver would be to go to Bella Coola and catch a ferry to N Van Isl. But that may not be a good idea as extreme winds are hitting the coast and ferries may shut down.

Hang tight Brio!

 

[Casey Jones]

My first job out of college was in Houston. First winter there they got 1/4 inch of snow and closed the freeways. I was in utter disbelief.

1981-82?

I was there for that. As I noted above.

 

[Cigarlover]

Well the grocery stores here are completely cleaned out and it's been two days.

Try door dash.
Whatever happened too Bezos and his delivery helicopters?

 

[Brio]

Try door dash.
Whatever happened too Bezos and his delivery helicopters?

We're pretty rustic here. I keep a saddle in the trunk so if I get a flat or break down I just catch a nag from a field and keep traveling. We call it a Cariboo spare.

 

[tigerwillow1]

1981-82?

I was there for that. As I noted above.

I went to Houston in 1972, so it would have been the winter of 72-73. But this gives a chance for another story. Sometime way back in the last century I was on a business trip in Atlanta when there was ice on the roads. In every place I saw where there was a hill, there was a group of cars stuck at the bottom, with the drivers having no clue how to drive on the ice.

 

[Casey Jones]

Actually, ice is another animal.

When the roads are ice-covered...tire chains or stay home.

Just a week ago I had a slo-mo close call on a back road, up at 5500 feet elevation...this is a paved Forest Service road, and it just follows an old Indian path. So there's lots of dips.

It was raining in town, sleeting higher, and here the snow was sticking on the road. Ice underneath; but I didn't notice until I decided, maybe it wasn't best to go this way. I tried to stop...and then started sliding sideways at walking speed, for about 100 feet.

Fortunately the gravel on the shoulder stopped me, and I was able to drive back up the hill and turn around, using liberal use of the shoulder. But...ice, forget it. Stay home and get drunk, or something.

 

[newmisty]

We're pretty rustic here. I keep a saddle in the trunk so if I get a flat or break down I just catch a nag from a field and keep traveling. We call it a Cariboo spare.

 

[Goldbrix]

I been watchin' this guy a few times. He gives a a good National Weather Report and his maps show our Canadian members too.
For your consideration, information or just entertainment:

 

[Avalon]

We're pretty rustic here. I keep a saddle in the trunk so if I get a flat or break down I just catch a nag from a field and keep traveling. We call it a Cariboo spare.

Damn you are impressive !!!

 

[Goldbrix]

I went to Houston in 1972, so it would have been the winter of 72-73. But this gives a chance for another story. Sometime way back in the last century I was on a business trip in Atlanta when there was ice on the roads. In every place I saw where there was a hill, there was a group of cars stuck at the bottom, with the drivers having no clue how to drive on the ice.

I spent some winter months in Georgia. One thing I found was Georgians don't do heavy snow and or ice well. I notice many folks down there drive "BALD EAGLE" tires. Smooth as a baby's Butt, some until the plies are showing through. Even the big cities have no Snow Trucks and few salt/chemical spreaders for ice. Augusta used road graders in heavy snow conditions.
I grew up in Ohio and winter time meant change to snow tires in my teens. Once All Season and All Terrain tires began to get popular I now just make sure I have good tread going into Winter Time. If I need new tires I ride the old ones until the first snow fall or I notice I am losing traction on rainy days.
I love driving in the snow and bad winter conditions don't bother me. ( That is what 4 wheel drive is four). IMO

 

[Brio]

Damn you are impressive !!!

LOL that's a joke Avalon.
Things are getting tight here though, not much left in the grocery stores and gas stations will be out soon.

This is the Trans Canada Hwy, how do you fix that!?

 

[Joe King]

This is the Trans Canada Hwy, how do you fix that!?

With a newer and much bigger bridge?

 

[Unca Walt]

LOL that's a joke Avalon.
Things are getting tight here though, not much left in the grocery stores and gas stations will be out soon.

This is the Trans Canada Hwy, how do you fix that!?

Piece o' cake -- Trail bike. We useta hope to find sumpin' like the pic above so's we could run it.

PS: That's a model train set, right?

 

[Casey Jones]

Piece o' cake -- Trail bike. We useta hope to find sumpin' like the pic above so's we could run it.

PS: That's a model train set, right?

Great big RL-gauge set.

Real Life gauge. Pretty expensive, but you can play with it for all your adult life.

Back in Ohoho, we had a lot of old railroad bridges over state highways. You know the kind - black, steel sides...like toy train sets would come with.

Some wag from one of the colleges, painted L I O N E L on several of the sides.

 

[hammerhead]

LOL that's a joke Avalon.
Things are getting tight here though, not much left in the grocery stores and gas stations will be out soon.

This is the Trans Canada Hwy, how do you fix that!?

Holy crap. That's one big wipe out. Is there an alternate route? Doubt a train is going over those tracks.

 

[Sampson]

Things are getting tight here though, not much left in the grocery stores and gas stations will be out soon.

This is the Trans Canada Hwy, how do you fix that!?

Yupp, it is going to take a while to get things back to normal around here, that is for sure. There are still no roads open to get supplies in or out although helicopters have been flying in and out continuously bringing in meds and airlifting people out of the worst areas.

I spent the night on Tuesday with about 200 volunteers sandbagging at the Barrowtown pump station to keep the pumps running ahead of the flood waters and so far it looks like we have saved them. Water levels have been going up and even down a bit over the last couple days and it has been mostly dry skies.

All our local gas stations are out of fuel, grocery stores are cleaned right out with extra security volunteers on site. Local farmers are trying to bring in anything they have available but the local logistics are difficult when they are just used to big trucks coming in and taking away loads to be processed elsewhere. Locals have been running truckloads of empty containers back and forth to the dairys and bringing in milk before it spoils but they cant keep up with demand.

It is raining again now but only projecting a few inches over the next couple days so hopefully we can stay ahead of it and the new rain doesn't initiate any more mudslides. There are rumors of military trying to fly in pumps to help but so far I haven't seen anything on the ground.

For me and mine directly, we are dry, warm, and well fed. We have been giving out supplies to close friends who need them and are just staying close to home unless needed. (like the emergency sandbagging)

 

[Sampson]