I've posted this "look at me" too often, but as someone who recently moved from Atlanta to an area where I frequently drive through snow to go to the Cascade Mountains, winter tires absolutely buttfucks most snow with a regular two-wheel drive car. I also learned that gravel is what is laid now, not salt, so that the roads are damaged less. What I've also started to learn the muscle memory for is when you're driving on roads that have snowpack is to not panic if you start skidding, assuming you aren't driving way the fuck out of control. Just let the car skid for a few moments and try to regain control gently, I've had that happen several times without any issue in both my car and my wife's. Ice rain on the other hand is a wildly different story. If there's even a half of an inch of ice on the road just completely avoid driving.
You're lucky if where you live is spreading something other than salt. Most areas still brine the roads.
Yeah we’re exclusively gravel up here. Can drive on pure ice no problem with a little gravel sprinkled on. Also makes people not follow too close behind in general which is a nice ancillary benefit.
I might actually be wrong then, that is what my neighbor told me. This is what the Oregon ODOT has on their website, https://www.oregon.gov/odot/maintenance/pages/salt-pilot.aspx It's very gravel like and reddish-brown, basically sounds like you're driving over gravel.
MgCl is still a salt is probably where the confusion comes from, just not the NaCl salt we are most familiar with.
Gravel is preferred up here because it can be used past 20°, which salt can’t, has no negative effect on the environment, which salt certainly does, and is reusable, which salt isn’t.
How do they reuse the gravel? Do they go around and scoop it up off the road when the winter is over?
Yes, just like street sweepers in a city, in the spring they sweep it all up from the sides of the roads/filter out the trash and junk. Also when it snows enough to necessitate removing the snow they take it to dump sites (usually in the negative space of highway intersections) then in the spring collect the gravel after the snow melts.
My inadequate rental car circa January 2018 below. You can see the airport in the distance of the second picture…almost made it. Every single person that passed stopped and asked if I need help, truly Minnesota nice.
I remember flying out of PHX the next morning and there were hordes of stressed Auburn fans with cancelled flights. I thought to myself "serves you fuckers right"
Whiteout conditions here. Just went out and ran the snow blower that I paid way too much money for right before mankind destroyed winters in Ohio. Only time in 4 years where I’ve had to run it for more than one snow storm a year.
For the passes, if it's cold enough, its generally packed snow/ice and then they lay down crushed lava rock. If it's warmer and the snowpack/ice on roads wants to melt and turn black ice, then they put down the de-icer.
Bought my toro snowblower last year, also spent way too much, hoping to use it this week. I may need to get the clear shield thing for it but we’ll never know til it snows…
Salt is used only on major roads, it’s mostly gravel every where else. When you drive down Burnside into downtown you can see one of the big gravel piles they use to fill the trucks.
We took the red eye and made it back to ATL just fine, thank you. Had my roommate pick us up at the airport so we could grab a couple hours of sleep before the 10am classes that didn’t get canceled. Zero learning was done that day.
Makes sense, I'm specifically referring to US-26 going up to Mt. Hood and US-20 going through Santiam Junction. That's where I've seen pretty large gravel like rocks, but those roads usually aren't completely smothered in snow throughout the entire winter so I'm not sure.
Yeah, the polar vortex is actually quite strong right now, which means it is contained around the North Pole and not seeping across North America. The source of this cold is different.
I just got back from Whole Foods and the staff are desperately restocking shelves like they’re the electricians on the titanic
I just slid a bit on a street here by my house going to get gas for our generator. It’s literally like a skating rink in some spots
KMCI is currently closed to all flight operations. Current TAF doesn't look promising for things to open up anytime tonight