It sounds like parts of the South have been hit by snow, ice, and cold so hard you'd think Donald Trump's inauguration miraculously ended global warming once and for all. I don't want to poke fun at folks who are unaccustomed to snow, but I do want to add some tips for drivers.
Image by Michael Junior from Pixabay
Slow down!
Be gentle accelerating. In physics, "acceleration" means any change in velocity or direction. Ease into the throttle. Ease into the brakes. Ease into turns. Give yourself extra room for every action on the road.
Don't believe marketing
4-wheel-drive is not 4-wheel-stop. Jeeps and Subarus are not miracle machines. Commercials and advertisements nowadays always have small print along the lines of "professional driver on a closed course." Unless you are also a pro, don't try to slalom through the snow in your car. See above and take it easy!
Summer equipment is not winter equipment
Mud tires are not snow tires, and big smooth lugs are terrible on snow and ice.
Summer street tires have too much rubber and too few grooves or siping to handle snow, even if they move water off wet roads OK.
All-season tires are not bad, but are not proper snow tires. I am content with all-seasons on the Friend-Shaped Car, but I also know when I need to just stay home.
Proper winter tires have a balance of lugs and grooves designed to handle snow, smaller siping grooves for slippery condition, and a softer rubber compound which works better in colder weather. Some even have metal studs for extra grip on ice.
Accept your limitations
Inexperience is OK, but recklessness is not. Don't feel the need to risk your neck. Then again, it might not hurt to find an empty parking lot and get a feel for low traction conditions in a safer environment, either. Just watch out for folks who don't have the right mindset on your way there.
Years ago we went to northern Alabama to see my mom. My husband has never seen snow or driven on ice. He kept talking about the signs we were seeing on the bridges, they said the bridge was slippery when ice was on it, or something like that, all of the bridges had that sign. He made us leave a couple of days early when he heard they were calling for the roads to ice over.
I'd make every person in Saskatoon read this if I could. Every year we have like 5 months of snow and these dipsticks manage to forget how to safely drive EVERY DANG TIME.
Hmmmm... I am in South Africa and I have never driven in the snow... there are some mountains that it DOES snow... we will go check it out one day...
time to salt the driveway
Not so great here. Long driveway. Then almost 2 miles of poorly-plowed dirt roads.
Great advice! Coming from Florida, I was surprised at how much driving on the sugar sand beaches prepared me for driving in the snow, or at least for being able to not get stuck in the snow. Between that and understanding the concepts of Hydroplaning I was able to go from having 0 experience driving in the snow to driving over 40 miles on snow-packed unplowed roads.
Can't say I have experience driving in sand or on any serious off-road trails aside from old logging roads. I also hate urban traffic. Most folks have areas of expertise and gaps in their experience somewhere.
Agreed. That's why it's good to have people pass on knowledge like you did here.
The only other thing I would add for southerners would be about braking. First, going slow like you suggested is super important. Second, you want to brake lightly or even not at all. You should ideally be going slow enough that releasing the accelerator will stop much of your momentum. Third, if you find yourself losing control, you want to tap the breaks and turn onto the spin. If you're going too fast though none of that will matter.
And if "turn into the spin" doesn't make sense, "steer where you want to go" might help. If you're already going slow, any slide should be recoverable.
People underestimate a basic front-wheel drive car, but they're surprisingly forgiving on bad roads. Rear-wheel drive is easy to kick loose with bad throttle control, especially in a pickup with less weight on the back wheels.
I can't stop chuckling thinking how hell has frozen over. I hate the sticky air down there which is like a hell for my skin. Maybe the pole shift is helping this a bit, magnetic north has swung way far back in the years, or the orange man brought the freeze? Too many options to choose from as potential instigators of the current fiasco. Total popcorn time though.
I'm thinking hard about heading south in search of warmer weather along with a new job. I don't mind heat, but I agree humidity is no fun. Minnesota got the crazy cycle of arctic winter and tropical summer like a manic depressive season change every year. I didn't like either one much.
I do love me the desert sw but I grew up in and around the forests so I need the Sierras or Rockies nearby. The midwest has its own set of issues and anything around the great lakes seems to be the most bipolar. If you WERE to leave up here I'd presume it would be to a different state and not just within Idaho?
Oregon is a nope. Southern Idaho and Utah are too Mormon-y. I have never been to AZ, NM, TX, etc.
NM is probably better than AZ as AZ has taken in countless CA escapees, as has TX. I haven't heard as much about NM in that regards. AZ does have the forests and mountains near Flagstaff that are nice.
NM is awful in many freedom metrics. it is improving a bit though, and is home to Hatch and their famous chilis.
It's hard since every state has their own set of shit. Hell maybe Kansas? But then there's the tornadoes...
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