Posted on 02/11/2008 7:31:52 AM PST by Born Conservative
I think I remember reading about that. Back in April of 1980 and 1984, I took my sons down to Florida. Inevitably, there were heavy snowfalls on the way down and back. It was so bad that we got off at several different exits in an attempt to find a motel to stay in, and they were all full. We had no choice but to continue driving, all the while seeing cars and tractor trailers off the road.
It's such a mountainous area, with so much open space that the winds blow the snow across the roads and visibility is zero. On our trip down to Florida in '80, we were driving on 81 South and because the roads were full of wet, heavy snow, driving was very slow. I remember trying to pass a slower vehicle in that crap, and I ended up sliding all the way across the road to the right and banging into the guard rail. Thank God there was no one behind me, and there was a guard rail and no cliff. Now that I'm retired and I don't have to schedule my vacations to suit my employer, I refuse to drive down 81 once any snow has fallen.
Thanks for sharing the pics. Nasty stuff. Thank God you got home okay.
Hmmm...Sunny, clear and will be about 75 degrees today in S. Cal.
so stop complaining already ! :)
I think the liquid magnesium is for pre-treating the roads. We’ve been subjected to some freakish weather events in the last couple of years where the roads weren’t pre-treated & the temps got so cold, so suddenly that the de-icers weren’t effective. ‘Course the weather is always a bit freaky on I-81 between Tower City & Scanton.
We’ve had a lot of budget problems associated with snow removal here in PA. Most of our worst storms seem to happen late in the winter when the budget for rock salt & snow clearing is pretty much tapped-out.
I live in PA but the worst white-out I was ever in was on I-80 in Colorado. I was coming up on the Eisenhower tunnel when the cars & trucks I was following ‘disappeared’. I expected to get piled into any second. Didn’t know if I should go for the shoulder (which I couldn’t see), slow to a crawl, or try to keep some speed. I opted to slow & thankfully so did everybody else. That was ‘white-knuckle’ driving.
From a montana state site:
“Materials Used for Winter Maintenance What is magnesium chloride?
Magnesium chloride is a salt compound extracted primarily from the Great Salt Lake, with added corrosion inhibitors, used to prevent or remove the build up of ice and snow on roads.
Magnesium chloride works like anti-freeze by lowering the freezing temperature of water and preventing ice from forming a strong bond to the road. It helps keep roads from becoming slick, improves safety and reduces accidents.”
Wow!!! Glad you are OK!! Scary stuff.
This thread is really interesting, but I missed the hockey connection. ;-)
I had to move the bottom of my browser up so I couldn’t see that picture. It was making me woozy.
I skied 7Springs two weekends ago and I had very good conditions. This weekend I was at the Wisp Resort in Western Maryland. The warm weather this week made the snow pretty slushy. How was 7Springs?
LOL! Wrong thread!
I didn’t sleep too well last night. sorry.
I missed the hockey connection as well, but the woman who died is from Bowie, MD... which is about a 30 minute drive from here. Prayers going out!
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