Blizzard strikes East Coast; motorists stranded for hours in Kentucky

Holy crap. People are stuck in their vehicles. People are stuck in 35 mile long backups on highways. 85 mill affected and 10 states in 'state of emergency'!!

People are getting in accedidents involving casualties & homeless people taken to shelters by police. It is surprising ( or, not, really) how many people are out in this bad weather, with all of the alerts and weather advisories.

I am not in harms way but our local Meteorologist have been talking about this epic storm for a week now. It does look like it is going to get worse.
If any ATS'ers are being hit, atay in and safe all!!

CNN)Up to 85 million people are in the path of a worsening winter storm that's iced up much of the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic.

Snow is coming down, but when the storm goes into the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday morning, it will supercharge, CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers said.

The fuse was just lit," Myers said. Once it gets to the Gulf Stream, "that's when the firecracker goes off."

B L I Z Z A R D

Kentucky deployed the National Guard to help people stuck on I-75. The Red Cross also opened a couple of shelters in the area to help people. There's a significant downgrade on I-75 south just past Berea, KY. No one could make it up the hill by Lake Linville, especially the trucks, and that's what caused the backup.

I-75 NB In Rockcastle County Reopened After Overnight Closure

a reply to: ReadLeader

You have to love American news items. Even weathermen, scientists mind you, meteorologists, cannot help using the most artless method to convey their point.

Using terms like "the fuse was just lit" followed by, "that's when the firecracker goes off!" is simply not appropriate when speaking of cold weather. Let's start at the beginning shall we? A firecracker does not go off when the fuse is lit. It goes off when the fuse has burnt out. If it went off the moment flame were applied to its fuse, then lost of people would be missing fingers. Think before engaging mouth next time, quoted weather person.

Also, using terms which describe the preparation for, and outworking of an exothermic chemical reaction, in order to ram home a point about cold weather, must have every single person with an interest in and basic understanding of chemistry either in fits of laughter, or apoplectic with rage at the sheer stupidity of it. Come ON people!

Why is it necessary to make everything a Michael Bay production? Would it be at all possible for the presenters to just speak the truth, and say:

"The passage of this weather system over the Atlantic will see the storm propagate into an extremely serious, and much more severe event than it has been previously. Weather advisories and warnings are in effect, and viewers should be in no doubt that under certain conditions, this weather could be a severe threat to human life, health and well being. Ensure that you have a plan to provide heat and light for yourselves in the event of a blackout, and food in the event of road closures and supply routes being cut off. Cease all non-essential travel, and if you must travel, stay WELL under the regular speed limit, and allow PLENTY of room between yourself and other vehicles on the road. Do NOT leave your drive without blankets, a shovel, flashlight, flares, food, hot drinks, and the like."

Aside from regionally specific issues, I think this about covers it, don't you? It has to be better and more informative than some tripe about a firecracker.

a reply to: EternalSolace

Thanks for the link Eternal! !!! Man, that looks scary. It's ok if you are home and stocked up, but I would NOT the to easy to being out in it, stuck

Thanks for posting

This is why I will never live in a state that gets snow...

I just dodge hurricanes instead

a reply to: TrueBrit

Also take note True, the verbiage has shfted; some of these new terms are new and fancy/sarc.

System
Lake effect
Occluded front
Nor easter
Super storm
Thunder snow

They are bringing "Doom Weather" to us at best

Thanks for posting

Smack in the middle of it as I am right next to Philadelphia PA.

It is pretty damn desolate and wintery looking out. Howling wind, blowing snow , lots of high piled drifts and no traffic..

Good times!

a reply to: eXia7

Hurricanes give the love of "N O T I C E" and plenty of time to pack a few things

I would be living full time in Fl. ASAP, right now if at all possible

originally posted by: ReadLeader
a reply to: TrueBrit

Also take note True, the verbiage has shfted; some of these new terms are new and fancy/sarc.

System
Lake effect
Occluded front
Nor easter
Super storm
Thunder snow

They are bringing "Doom Weather" to us at best

Thanks for posting

Which of those terms do you consider new becuasse they have been part of weather vernacular for years.

I live on the TN/KY border and it wasn't "too bad" here. Honestly I was expecting much worse bbecause of the way they talking.

My husband and I were driving around yesterday looking for people to help pull out. Today we are going sledding.

a reply to: spartanwarrior

Is it still coming down Sparan? How many feet are on the ground?

Thanks for posting

At least the weather guy stuck out in the snow has a hat on this morning - last night the guy getting all wet and snowy looked ridiculous, telling people to get off the roads, talking about how bad it was, and he didn't have enough sense to put on a hat. At that time it didn't look any different than what Edmonton deals with all winter.

The only word of that list I didn't recognize was "occluded front" Although that's likely a proper scientific term. Maybe it's just something we don't get on the Cdn prairies, or we use a simpler term? Up here it's just mostly snow, unless it's lake effect, there's lots of that around the larger lakes

Our news also said , that even by Cdn standards, this will be bad today and tomorrow. That means only plows and snowmobiles should be out there.

There was a bad blizzard in Saskatchewan a few years ago, there were groups of people with snowmobiles rescuing people from their stuck cars.
If snow is expected to be deep, people shouldn't try to warm in the car with engine running unless the exhaust pipes are clear of snow. It's better to have a snow kit with a cup for drinking clean snow, and a candle in a safe place where it won't fall over, in a tin (fireproof).
Hopefully people at least have warm blankets in their vehicles..

My husband and I were driving around yesterday looking for people to help

What kind of "helpings" are we talking about...

We have close to a foot here already. I will be shoveling my roof tomorrow.


Thanks Obama!!!

a reply to: EternalSolace

There's a significant downgrade on I-75 south just past Berea, KY. No one could make it up the hill by Lake Linville, especially the trucks, and that's what caused the backup.

Thats what I heard, too. Sudden chill producing an inch of ice on the grade of that slope means large trucks just stop. Nobody goes anywhere until conditions improve. I hear they are moving again, Thank goodness.

Anymore than a day in a cold car uses up a tank of gas, idling and running the heater.

And like a hurricane people had plenty of warning and ignored it. Just sayn.

a reply to: mikell

Yup, that was kind of my point



I'll never understand why folks just don't see what the weather is going to do; in my area the weather dictates alot of the actions and decisions for the day, week, month....

Scratches head....

a reply to: ReadLeader

That's an easy question to answer.

People whose lives are not daily matters of life and death, find it difficult to comprehend their mortality, more specifically, the fragility of it. They have no conception, save the smallest sliver in the back of their minds, of just how easily a person can slip from the realm of the living, to the underland and overland beyond. It is a symptom of changes in culture and living circumstances which began with the invention of the term, and concept of civilisation.

Had a wise man foretold to the people of Pompeii, that they would be overcome in mere days, by a pyroclastic flow, buried in searing ash, their land and persons baked into statues which would echo for future generations, their death screams burnt in their throats, and immortalised in carbon, they might not have moved either.

But our ancestors in deeper time would have already moved elsewhere, because their lives were always beset by one thing or another, which might drive them from their camps and caves, their dugouts and mud huts, and were more connected to the land, to their existence. For all that they could not build cars, and cover hundreds of miles in a day by their use, they did have better understanding of mortality, because they never knew when a great predator might take one of them, or when they might be forced to flee a massive flood, or a lightning wrought fire in the bush, or woodland they were in at the time. Death walked amongst them, behind them, and ahead of them, stalked them always.

We do not feel the press of the hand of death nearly so keenly, nor do we all have easy access to the older instincts which teach us about natures fury, when to embrace it, and when to avoid it. We are at once stronger for our machines and our ability to weather harsher weather than our forebears, and weaker, for our inability to see the writing on the wall. The more we advance in some ways, the more we degenerate in others. It has ever been thus, and may always be. Only time will tell.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Trus, so True ( no pun intended ) everything I do (that has to do with leaving my home) is dependent on the climate. Does one go on a summer vacation without looking ahead at the weather for that week???

Thanks for posting

originally posted by: ReadLeader
Does one go on a summer vacation without looking ahead at the weather for that week???

When one owns and operates a Masonic chemtrail plane the answer is 'no'.