Driving In Heavy Lake Effect Snow This Morning


M

Marlin338MX

Well-Known Member
I took my son to the airport this morning at 2:30. The lake effect snow was coming down hard at times, and the high wind gusts weren't helping with the lack of visibility. For anyone who has never experienced driving through lake effect snow, especially at night, trust me when I say that it's not fun at all. Here's a little video clip of my drive this morning. At one point on this 2 lane road, I had to stop and wait for the road to re-appear through the snow.

 
Worst white out I've been in was on I-40 in New Mexico. I was just east of Thorough, NM, clear blue skies, elevation over 7,000 above sea level. The snow started with just flurries and over a few minutes went to complete white out conditions. I could only rely on my GPS to know where the next exit was. The snow was building fast on the freeway and down to one set of tire tracks to follow. I could barely see the Jersey Barriers at the exit off ramp. I was able to find a car wash parking lot to pull into and wait the storm out. About an hour and the snow cleared to blue skies again but the roads were under at least half a foot of snow. I made my way to the freeway and continued west at a crawl with the other traffic. Numerous trucks and cars off the road for miles after that.
 
I never have driven in lake effect snow but have hit a few of the white outs. The worst was on I40 near Gallup, New Mexico. Got off on an exit, we literally listened to the rumble strip to find the exit. I was going to wait it out. Cop pulled up and asked if I was alright. Told him why and he said, how long u been sitting here, said maybe 10 minutes. He said well it’s over now you can drive again. Pulled back up on the Interstate and we were clear till Flagstaff were the Interstate was closed because of drifting. That was 2005 taking the son to Tempe for his 1st semester of college.
 
Marlin338MX said:
Thank you for driving a plow to keep the roads as safe as possible. There's not much you can do when it snows at a rate 3" an hour. You just can't see through that kind of snow.
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Your welcome. This storm wasn't as bad as the one in January. That one was 14", this last one was 5" but had more wind.
RhB Michael said:
Last time I drove in snow that bad I was on my way back to Chanute AFB in late December of '81. Got back to the base and the technical training was shut down for three days after that snow. I could have stayed home but didn't know they had closed the base.
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I did tech school there in 85. We had some very cold dry type air there, couldn't even go out to class due to frostbite conditions.
 
We get the white outs with the wind whipping across some of our large bogs. Your video brings back memories of commuting through that in the previous two winters. One especially brutal afternoon we had heavy snow, strong winds, and temps below 0 Farenheit. A couple times I thought my vehicle was going to stall because the wind was blowing straight into the radiator. I could hear the fan belt squeal a couple times which was a bit scary. I was only going 35 mph but had to take the foot all the way off the accelerator and then she smoothed out for me.

This winter is a different story in East central Minnesota, we are experiencing a nearly snowless winter. I am no longer doing a long commute, but we have not had a snowstorm all winter either.

Dave LASM
 
We've also had a winter with very little snow compared to a normal winter. We've had 2 snow storms this winter that dropped between 12-14" of snow. Last winter we had 3 snow storms that dropped between 3-6 ft each storm. Winter might be far from over for us because Lake Ontario isn't frozen, which opens up the possibility for lots more lake effect snow.
 
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