Let it snow, let it snow, let it SNOW!!

[Opsimath]

TOM - ENJOY WHILE YOU HAVE IT

Only once in 5-7 years - sort of envy that - we had some heavy/wet snow here and shoveling gets more and more unpleasant year after year.

But it sure looks pretty - and dogs love it ( they do not have to shovel )



JYMY @ whopping ten weeks of age - enjoying the snow - have a video, too - but can not upload directly.

Jymy getting to know neighbour's stacked dogs - now @ 17 months

And still no problems with snow - he actually loves to roll in it

Who stacked the neighbor's dogs?

 

[crank]

My better half, Robin atop Sugarloaf Mountain,ME around 10 this morning. Beautiful day!

 

[JulySunshine29]

I live in Georgia so it hardly ever snows, except in the mountains. Whenever there's even a chance of snow anywhere else, the ENTIRE STATE goes into panic mode and shuts down. You would think it was Armageddon. A couple years ago, there was a little snow flurry (which didn't even stick and lasted for a total of like 30 mins) and the county salted all the roads. School gets cancelled. Even a lot of businesses close. Everyone hoards everything from the store leading up to it so a lot of the shelves are bare. The weatherman has an existential crisis. It can get just a teeny bit excessive, especially since sometimes everyone does all this and then it doesn't even end up snowing.

 

[MLBob]

Pretty Labs, Nuuska!

 

[MLBob]

Not terribly significant, but snow in Las Vegas is always kinda fun to me. Started yesterday in the high areas and when the weather lifted for a minute or two in the afternoon the mountains were COVERED with snow. Last night dusted everywhere else and they say more is on the way today possibly. It's just fun to me because it only happens like every 5-7 years.

All my snowboarding and skiing friends are heading up to Mt. Charleston today!! They're gonna need chains.....

Enjoy, Tomas!

 

[beecee]

My experience and observation is that driving in snow/sleet/rain/ice etc. is still talked about but what matters is hands on experience. When Driver's Ed is taught in the summer, practice is difficult. Same for teaching in places that have snowless winters.

There is certainly hubris involved as well since many drivers don't know what they don't know and others think their vehicle can do it all for them.

My daughter just got her permit. It too some coaxing but I've had her in a large parking field, (dead Mall), the past few nights where I had her intentionally slide and she's learning how to steer into the slide and how to use the accelerator and not the brakes when you're losing it.

I grew up w/rear wheel drive and donuts where a lot easier than with a traction controlled AWD sedan.

Due to current car tech she may never feel the joy of getting under the car to slip cardboard/carpet pieces etc under the rear drive wheels for grip while the salty slush oozes through your pants.

 

[Nuuska]

. . .I grew up w/rear wheel drive and donuts where a lot easier than with a traction controlled AWD sedan. . .

4-wheel drive with all possible letter combination includes a nasty potential danger - it lets you push the limit of slipping and sliding to much more severe level before things start to happen - and when they do there's very little to be done anymore.


MLBob - them neighbour dogs are "cocktail dogs" - mixed breed - but quite pretty.

Opsimath - they did it themselves - sure looks funny

JulySunshine 29 - "Public warning ! ! ! Snowflake in horizon ! ! ! We all are going to die ! ! ! "

 

[Cougar]

Oddly we haven't had much snow yet this season, and we're just 70 miles from the Canadian border. We had one decent snow some weeks ago - about 3-4 inches accumulated, but nothing since. Well we've had a dusting the last couple nights, and it's not getting above 32F, so it's not melting.

We're forecast for a good snow though later today and tomorrow, so I figured it was time to get into town and get some new tires for the FJ Cruiser. I got Toyo Open Country A/T III's - "severe snow service rated." Man, what a difference! These babies GRIP the road. It was snowing pretty good as I left Sandpoint, snow sticking to the road. Local traffic, what there was of it, wasn't much fazed, kept at the 55mph limit. Not a problem! Nice of the snow to stop before I got home, so I got out and chopped me some wood. We are loving those evening fires in the fireplace....

 

[davismanLV]

Here's Las Vegas today with the snow on the beautiful mountains..... what a pretty sight!!

 

[cupric]

 

[dingrr]

Just a light dusting here in Greensboro. Pretty rare but still excites me, being from the snow belt of Buffalo.

 

[Cougar]

Here's Las Vegas today with the snow on the beautiful mountains..... what a pretty sight!!

Man, that is an awesome shot! The sharpness of those mountains is really something.

I hope you're over that bout with Covid, with no after effects. I just got my second Pfizer shot today, so I'm feeling pretty good....

 

[beecee]

Just a light dusting here in Greensboro. Pretty rare but still excites me, being from the snow belt of Buffalo.

Hey I had lunch at Duff's today.

 

[davismanLV]

Man, that is an awesome shot! The sharpness of those mountains is really something.

I hope you're over that bout with Covid, with no after effects. I just got my second Pfizer shot today, so I'm feeling pretty good....

We're doing really well here, @Cougar !! Surprising for a couple of super old guys with health problems. I was trying to think what guitars to gift to whom and ..... but apparently we're too mean to die. Not tempting fate or anything but thanks for asking, my friend. Trying to get the vaccine now but apparently Nevada SUCKS at this... so we wait. I live in a really great and over populated valley but those mountains show how, directionally, land masses move and plates shift!! Over and under!!

 

[spoox]

Exactly 50 years ago--about 6 months before we were married.
Big Bear, my first experience driving in snow and ice. Coming around a bend, I saw cars off the side of the road, and people frantically waving.
As I hit the patch of black ice and felt my Rambler go into the skid: the standard TIME SLOWS DOWN EFFECT...
"Hmm...now let's see...what did they say in Driver's Ed...? Turn into the skid? What the hell does that mean? Brakes? No brakes?"
My friends in the back seat were screaming, which really helped a lot--I resisted the temptation to brake, took my foot off the accelerator, and steered
in the direction of my sliding back wheels--all this while I was still trying to remember what I'd been told. We breezed around all the vehicles
who weren't so lucky. Later, my friend in the back seat who'd grown up in the Ozarks complemented me on my driving.
I told him it was merely instinct that had cut in. Later that day when we went back down the mountain the ice had melted, so I had no need of a
repeat performance...

 

[fronobulax]

Exactly 50 years ago--about 6 months before we were married.
Big Bear, my first experience driving in snow and ice. Coming around a bend, I saw cars off the side of the road, and people frantically waving.
As I hit the patch of black ice and felt my Rambler go into the skid: the standard TIME SLOWS DOWN EFFECT...
"Hmm...now let's see...what did they say in Driver's Ed...? Turn into the skid? What the hell does that mean? Brakes? No brakes?"
My friends in the back seat were screaming, which really helped a lot--I resisted the temptation to brake, took my foot off the accelerator, and steered
in the direction of my sliding back wheels--all this while I was still trying to remember what I'd been told. We breezed around all the vehicles
who weren't so lucky. Later, my friend in the back seat who'd grown up in the Ozarks complemented me on my driving.
I told him it was merely instinct that had cut in. Later that day when we went back down the mountain the ice had melted, so I had no need of a
repeat performance...

Maybe not deja vu but connections.

My usual car was a '64 Rambler with power nothing and three on the tree. Many's the time I was not the one stuck on the side of the road in snow because it just didn't seem prudent to go fast enough to shift out of second. One evening I was tasked to pick up my sister and some friends from an orchestra rehearsal. I took the other car - a Valiant with power brakes, steering and an automatic - for some reason, probably because it had six seatbelts. So it starts to snow or sleet but mostly freezing rain. I have to cross a river on a four lane, no divider bridge. I'm doing about 5 mph in the right lane and getting too close to the car ahead so I figure I should switch to the left. I start the lane change and skid instead. I correct but because I am not used to power steering, it is an over correction. So I over correct in the other direction and then try once more. Finally the car comes to a stop having spun around 270 degrees. Never left "my" two lanes. No oncoming traffic and the car behind me stopped with flashers when I first lost it so no one came up behind me. Recovered and continued home. My sister and her friends were quiet during and after and I do not recall being asked to provide chauffer services for the rest of that winter.

 

[Nuuska]

Steering INTO THE SKID - - - when I was in MN getting my drivers license - I had to do this test at the "computer" - and there was this question about steering into skid - I do not recall exact phrasing - but it was somewhat confusing for someone with native finnish instead of native english - so I asked the lady in office about the meaning of the phrase - she refused to answer thinking I was asking for help - so I had to guess - naturally wrong - and I had to go to that test again. Was really funny, because by that time I had about a decade driving in snow with rear-drive cars in pocket . . .

EDIT - I do remember that the question was like "If you skid to left - do you turn the wheel to left or right" - problem was that I had no idea whether "skidding to left" meant the front or the back of the car was too much on left . . .

Actually I still do not know what that expression means - meanwhile I am happy to perfectly control the actual situation when it comes without warning. 4-wheel drive is worst to handle. Rear-wheel-drive - ease gas and steer to where you wish to go. Front-wheel-drive - more gas and steer. 4-wheel-drive - beware the speed to begin with. While it is quite easy to start at slippery surface - stopping and steering is another thing.

 

[fronobulax]

I do remember that the question was like "If you skid to left - do you turn the wheel to left or right" - problem was that I had no idea whether "skidding to left" meant the front or the back of the car was too much on left . . .

I don't recall front wheel drive cars being a concern when I was learning and being tested. I remember skidding in real wheel drive cars and I now drive and skid in front wheel drive cars. What I would do, today, regardless which wheels were the drive wheels, would be to steer in the direction I wanted to go. So if I wanted to go straight but the car was sliding to the right I would turn the wheel so the car was heading to the left.

I think that's the right answer regardless of where the drive wheels are. If it is RWD and the back wheels start slipping to the left, that points the nose to the right so I turn to the left. Since the back wheels are going left and I am turning left maybe that's what turn into the skid means for a RWD car? At this point it is all instinct and I tend to try and avoid teh situation entirely by keeping my speed down.

 

[Nuuska]

Frono - how you drive is just like what I do - my actual question was the meaning of direction of skid - regardles of Fw-RW-4W-drive.

 

[fronobulax]

Frono - how you drive is just like what I do - my actual question was the meaning of direction of skid - regardles of Fw-RW-4W-drive.

Yeah. I was trying to imply that the direction of the skid was the direction the car's front was travelling in, compared to the the direction the car's driver wanted it to travel in.

One answer from teh internet, more concise than me:

What does it mean to turn in the direction of the skid?
In a car, steer in the direction you want the front wheels to go.

I note that the proper advice can be given without mentioning "the direction of the skid". Perhaps it is a phrase that has outlasted its utility?