How's the weather?

[Mike Schwartz]

Feel so fortunate not to be in these frigid conditions sweeping through so many places; feel for you if you are having to deal with it.

3rd year serious drought.... day after day mid to upper 30's in the evening mid 60's in the afternoon.

[Scott Dolan]

Had a pipe burst in my basement due to the weather. Oh my, it's so much fun...

[jeffcrom]

Atlanta has just fallen apart. Some snow was expected, but it came up suddenly about noon and covered more area than expected. We don't have much snow equipment, we don't drive in the snow very well here, and that's exacerbated by the nasty, slick ice we tend to get on our roads. Every school and business closed at the same time, around 1:00 PM. The roads filled up quickly, there were many accidents, and all the highways became parking lots. Many folks have run out of gas on the roads, adding to the gridlock. There are people interviewed by phone on television that have been on the road for over eight hours, and have only traveled ten miles in that time. (20-30 mile commutes are not unusual in the Atlanta area.) There are still school buses that are stuck in traffic hours after leaving school. Some schools have just given up, and are keeping their kids overnight. It's a nightmare. My wife works nearby, and it took her an hour to get home.

Edited January 29, 2014 by jeffcrom

[JSngry]

Atlanta has just fallen apart. Some snow was expected, but it came up suddenly about noon and covered more area that expected. We don't have much snow equipment, we don't drive in the snow very well here, and that's exacerbated by the nasty, slick ice we tend to get on our roads. Every school and business closed at the same time, around 1:00 PM. The roads filled up quickly, there were many accidents, and all the highways became parking lots. Many folks have run out of gas on the roads, adding to the gridlock. There are people interviewed by phone on television that have been on the road for over eight hours, and have only traveled ten miles in that time. (20-30 mile commutes are not unusual in the Atlanta area.) There are still school buses that are stuck in traffic hours after leaving school. Some schools have just given up, and are keeping their kids overnight. It's a nightmare. My wife works nearby, and it took her an hour to get home.

Are there power outages? Sure hope not.

[jeffcrom]

Atlanta has just fallen apart. Some snow was expected, but it came up suddenly about noon and covered more area that expected. We don't have much snow equipment, we don't drive in the snow very well here, and that's exacerbated by the nasty, slick ice we tend to get on our roads. Every school and business closed at the same time, around 1:00 PM. The roads filled up quickly, there were many accidents, and all the highways became parking lots. Many folks have run out of gas on the roads, adding to the gridlock. There are people interviewed by phone on television that have been on the road for over eight hours, and have only traveled ten miles in that time. (20-30 mile commutes are not unusual in the Atlanta area.) There are still school buses that are stuck in traffic hours after leaving school. Some schools have just given up, and are keeping their kids overnight. It's a nightmare. My wife works nearby, and it took her an hour to get home.

Are there power outages? Sure hope not.

Not many - only in a few scattered areas. That's not much comfort to the people who are affected, I suppose.

[kinuta]

Tokyo is having one of the mildest winters I can remember with blue skies almost every day.

We've hardly used the heating except in the early morning and late at night. 13C at the moment.

[JSngry]

Atlanta has just fallen apart. Some snow was expected, but it came up suddenly about noon and covered more area that expected. We don't have much snow equipment, we don't drive in the snow very well here, and that's exacerbated by the nasty, slick ice we tend to get on our roads. Every school and business closed at the same time, around 1:00 PM. The roads filled up quickly, there were many accidents, and all the highways became parking lots. Many folks have run out of gas on the roads, adding to the gridlock. There are people interviewed by phone on television that have been on the road for over eight hours, and have only traveled ten miles in that time. (20-30 mile commutes are not unusual in the Atlanta area.) There are still school buses that are stuck in traffic hours after leaving school. Some schools have just given up, and are keeping their kids overnight. It's a nightmare. My wife works nearby, and it took her an hour to get home.

Are there power outages? Sure hope not.

Not many - only in a few scattered areas. That's not much comfort to the people who are affected, I suppose.

No...but if things aren't nearly as bad as they could be...

Heavy unfamiliar weather is bad enough a whammy on its own...add a loss of power....ugh.

Here's hoping that things only get better, and soon.

[Larry Kart]

2 degrees

[jeffcrom]

Atlanta has just fallen apart.

11:00 PM, and the news programs are showing live shots of the interstate highways - still packed with cars not moving, or creeping forward inches at a time. The Facebook page for the school system where I taught for 29 years is filled with angry or disbelieving posts by parents whose children aren't home from school yet, or who haven't left school yet, and presumably won't until tomorrow.

I'm a native Atlantan, and am used to our helplessness when it comes to snow, but I've never seen anything like this. It's difficult to grasp what's causing this level of traffic gridlock. As far as I can tell, the onset of the snow was so sudden that road conditions deteriorated far faster than anyone had imagined. I walked into a supermarket to do my weekly grocery shopping around noon, and there were just light flurries. When I walked out 25 minutes later, I instantly knew that there was going to be trouble, and that I wouldn't be driving to the suburbs to teach my music lessons this evening.

[alankin]

Up to 12 degrees.

[jeffcrom]

26 Pictures From the Insane Traffic Jam That Has Atlanta Looking Like "The Walking Dead"

[Scott Dolan]

Up to 12 degrees.

Hey! We're up to a rather sultry 10 here in mid-Missouri!

I really don't mind cold weather. Having lived in Florida for 32 years I actually appreciate it quite a bit. But I have to admit these single digit temps are even starting to wear on me.

[A Lark Ascending]

If it keeps on raining the Doncaster levee is going to break.

[sidewinder]

If it keeps on raining the Doncaster levee is going to break.

The Somerset Levels have already been there and done that. Some of the people I work with live that way and they are having an 'interesting' time at present.

All the places with '-ney' as a suffix seem to be OK at present, it's the lower stuff that is particularly vulnerable. The West Saxons weren't daft when they stuck their settlements in the '-ney' places !

Edited January 29, 2014 by sidewinder

[A Lark Ascending]

Wettest January since Noah - it's official:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25944823

Had a flurry of snow today. Kids went mental!

Edited January 30, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[BillF]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2014/jan/30/how-often-does-it-rain-in-manchester

[Chuck Nessa]

Our weather sucks. Temps finally moving up but massive snow ensues.

[Scott Dolan]

Hell, we got all the way up to 48 today! Felt like a genuine heat wave. Although the wind kept you grounded in reality.

I don't know about any of you, but in my opinion this is one of the windiest winters I've ever lived through.

[JSngry]

Has Atlanta melted yet, Jeff?

[jeffcrom]

Has Atlanta melted yet, Jeff?

Mostly. It got above freezing around noon today, and most of the roads are now in good shape. Most school systems will remain closed tomorrow - a combination of erring on the side of caution and recognizing that many students and teachers spent Tuesday night at school or stranded on buses, and might need some more time to decompress and catch up on sleep.

Recriminations are flying, and the governor and head of emergency management for the state have admitted that they dropped the ball. The mayor remain oddly defiant. I hope that folks here use this experience to reevaluate their love of cars and disdain for public transportation.

But nobody died, although there were some near misses with folks stranded for hours without their medications. And a gorgeous baby named Grace was born in a car stranded on I-285; mom and baby are doing fine.

Edited January 31, 2014 by jeffcrom

[jazzbo]

It's cold out there.

If I had a woman with me I'd be saying "But Baby, it's cold out there."

[Scott Dolan]

Has Atlanta melted yet, Jeff?

Mostly. It got above freezing around noon today, and most of the roads are now in good shape. Most school systems will remain closed tomorrow - a combination of erring on the side of caution and recognizing that many students and teachers spent Tuesday night at school or stranded on buses, and might need some more time to decompress and catch up on sleep.

Recriminations are flying, and the governor and head of emergency management for the state have admitted that they dropped the ball. The mayor remain oddly defiant. I hope that folks here use this experience to reevaluate their love of cars and disdain for public transportation.

But nobody died, although their were some near misses with folks stranded for hours without their medications. And a gorgeous baby named Grace was born in a car stranded on I-285; mom and baby are doing fine.

The fact there were no deaths is really remarkable. And thank goodness.

Living here in the midwest I kinda feel for everyone involved. Even those who "dropped the ball". This is simply something folks down there aren't familiar in dealing with.

I even saw that 100 miles of I-10 was closed in Florida yesterday due to icy conditions. I lived in Florida for 32 years. The only thing we knew about ice down there was that you crushed it up for your Margaritas.

[jeffcrom]

And jeez - I do know the difference between "there" and "their." Fixed in my original post.

[JSngry]

And jeez - I do know the difference between "there" and "their." Fixed in my original post.

Ah, fuck it. Spelling matters most to people who read with their eyes. Me, I tend to read with my ears, except for unfamiliar words, and even then, if it's on the Internet, bang/zoom/right-click, it gets figured out, or as the grammarians might argue, out it gets figured. Otherwise, I still own a dictionary, a real one with a hardcover binding and really thin paper for pages.

Glad to hear that nobody died. I'd guess, somewhat confidently, that that's diretly proportional to the lack of power outages, and less confidently that, from what it looked like on TV anyway, that people actually got gridlocked on the ice rather than driving on it. Snow is easy, but ice..the greaterly inversed one's fear is to one's fearlessness, ice will take you out and not bring you back.

And as far as dropping balls, hey it's a fact of life once you get past a certain age, which I'm sure that Atlanta has. Pick up and move on, as they say.

[page]

It's cold out there.

If I had a woman with me I'd be saying "But Baby, it's cold out there."

"I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice."