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I hope all our Texan members are safe and well (Feb 2023)

dsio
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Just hearing from some mates over there about the ice storm hitting Texas, I’m guessing it’s a bit like in Australia in that when the conditions get super bad, the absolute worst drivers in the community all decide to hit the roads.

It’s hard to imagine ice and snow there as when I visited it felt a lot like tropical Australia. Hopefully you’re all safe, stocked up on food and provisions and doing well.
 
gbesq
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No offense to Texans or residents of other southern states in the US, but my experience as a resident of the northeastern US who went to college in the southern US was to stay off the roads during those rare events when there was frozen precipitation. Not only are the southern states ill equipped to deal with those events, but you are taking your life in your hands if you venture out onto the roads surrounded by southerners who have no idea how to drive in those conditions. It’s a scene, man. That said, here's hoping that our southern neighbors are safe and that their lives return to normal as quickly as possible.
Edited:
 
dsio
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It happens every single time we have flooding in Australia. The police put out these ads saying “if it’s flooded, forget it”.

Then Tiffany who just got her license pulls up to the water’s edge at a river crossing in her 1997 Hyundai Excel with a Magic Happens sticker on the back window and tries to creep through it, hoping the water won’t notice her.

Then Bruce comes along in his Nissan Navara crew cab Ute, he points and laughs at the Hyundai then drives in full throttle because he bought and installed a snorkel on his car himself and wants to test it. But Bruce doesn’t quite get that his giant slab sided SUV doesn’t have the traction to stop it getting swept away by river currents and ends up sitting on his roof until the rescue crews come to save him and his dog.

It’s like bad weather is just a magnet to idiots who can’t drive or use judgement.
 
Vercingetorix
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I drove from Fl through Texas and into New Mexico between Sunday night and Monday. It was quite an experience driving through Dallas and getting passed by people who must have been doing 80 mph. It was 16 degrees Fahrenheit and raining at the time. Darwin was in full force.
 
Duracuir1
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I cannot even count how many snow related fatal collisions I have attended.

The scenes are bad. The next of kin notifications are worse.

People think they must always drive “at or above” the speed limit, even in snowstorms. This behaviour will never be corrected.

Hang in there Texas!
Edited:
 
SC1
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Vercingetorix Vercingetorix
I drove from Fl through Texas and into New Mexico between Sunday night and Monday. It was quite an experience driving through Dallas and getting passed by people who must have been doing 80 mph. It was 16 degrees Fahrenheit and raining at the time. Darwin was in full force.

You should have waved... we are in southern NM.
 
Evitzee
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I'm in the Texas Hill Country, west of Austin, and the hysteria here has been crazy. I've been out every day this week, no issues whatsoever with icy roads, but government offices are closed (no mail delivery), schools closed all week, most restaurants closed even though it was about 37 deg F this afternoon and will probably be sunny and 55 tomorrow. My view is we have become a weak society, every little inconvenience related to weather is blown up to be some sort of threat to life and limb. People seem happy to stay home and not report for work or school. It wasn't that way when I was growing up, but times change, often not for the better. Common sense is out the window. The end of our national anthem, "....and the home of the brave" should be changed to ".....better safe than sorry".
 
gbesq
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Evitzee Evitzee
I'm in the Texas Hill Country, west of Austin, and the hysteria here has been crazy. I've been out every day this week, no issues whatsoever with icy roads, but government offices are closed (no mail delivery), schools closed all week, most restaurants closed even though it was about 37 deg F this afternoon and will probably be sunny and 55 tomorrow. My view is we have become a weak society, every little inconvenience related to weather is blown up to be some sort of threat to life and limb. People seem happy to stay home and not report for work or school. It wasn't that way when I was growing up, but times change, often not for the better.
I remember walking to school in blizzards when I was a kid. It was brutal. Uphill. Both ways. 😁
 
TexOmega
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Evitzee Evitzee
I'm in the Texas Hill Country, west of Austin, and the hysteria here has been crazy. I've been out every day this week, no issues whatsoever with icy roads, but government offices are closed (no mail delivery), schools closed all week, most restaurants closed even though it was about 37 deg F this afternoon and will probably be sunny and 55 tomorrow. My view is we have become a weak society, every little inconvenience related to weather is blown up to be some sort of threat to life and limb. People seem happy to stay home and not report for work or school. It wasn't that way when I was growing up, but times change, often not for the better. Common sense is out the window. The end of our national anthem, "....and the home of the brave" should be changed to ".....better safe than sorry".



Safe and SOUNDs, woosin' out all over the domicile.......
 
5DDF553B-9C93-4911-AB3B-C76034AA53DC.jpeg
redpcar
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I'm in the Austin area. 2 days of freezing rain. Not really that cold, just below freezing. Regular roads stayed wet for the most part but bridges and overpasses were a skating rink. Keep in mind that there is very little dept of transportation equipment to handle this. Strategy is to wait. My wife is a school teacher. No class Tues-Thurs because of ice. Now no school Friday because the power is out. This is a strange one. Massive ice accumulation on the trees caused collapses all over the area. BIG trees down. My power was never interrupted but many of my friends have been off since Tues and not expected to come on line until late Fri or Sat. Ironically, I have a tee time Saturday and it's supposed to be 60 deg. I took tomorrow off to chainsaw the debris from my yard.
Check out the pics of the amount of ice. This brought large trees down.

upload_2023-2-2_20-24-37.png upload_2023-2-2_20-25-20.png
 
watchyouwant
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Nature provides in mysterious ways. Power out = Fridges and Freezers out . Ice now outside on the Trees for the perfect Gin / Tonic....
 
vintage hab
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Duracuir1 Duracuir1
People think they must always drive “at or above” the speed limit, even in snowstorms. This behaviour will never be corrected.
But it’s so much safer to drive fast in these conditions: you spend less time out on the road. 😁
 
texasmade
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Houston here. No ice for me. Just cold air and light rain the past couple of days
 
JwRosenthal
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Duracuir1 Duracuir1
I cannot even count how many snow related fatal collisions I have attended.

The scenes are bad. The next of kin notifications are worse.

People think they must always drive “at or above” the speed limit, even in snowstorms. This behaviour will never be corrected.

Hang in there Texas!
And if they have a massive SUV they don’t have to be cautious on ice because they’re safer in that behemoth-they paid for the upgraded “winter package”. Doesn’t matter that physics doesn’t agree with their hubris.
 
Pastorbottle
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It’s an absolute delight to drive in poor weather conditions…….1/2 of the imbeciles drive to fast for the conditions and the other half drive too slow……..add some good old fashioned inattention to the speed differential between them and you have the perfect recipe for carnage
 
hen
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Good luck and all the best to Texas. Being Norwegian I used to weather, but its still a hassle to deal with. Did that politician escape to Mexico again?
 
Larry S
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Easy for us snow belt people with our AWD, winter tires, winter hardened road and utility departments to cluck at sun belt people dealing with winter. Driving on black ice, no matter where you live, is just a very bad idea and should be avoided. Great question @hen where is Cancun Ted?
 
Aroxx
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JwRosenthal JwRosenthal
And if they have a massive SUV they don’t have to be cautious on ice because they’re safer in that behemoth-they paid for the upgraded “winter package”. Doesn’t matter that physics doesn’t agree with their hubris.
This reminded me of a fun story from a long time ago. Driving to work one morning in bad snow conditions. These days everyone would just WFH. Probably should have then as well. I drive stick and like to test the limits of grip to see where it’s at. Break the tires loose, brake till you slide. Well, there was just about no grip this particular morning. So unlike my typical self I’m driving extremely slow and trying to make no abrupt actions whatsoever. Really dicey conditions. Some schmuck in a new BMW X5 starts tailgating me. Clearly the road conditions are no factor for his X5. Nobody else is on the road. Get to a sharp section of 90 degree turns about a mile up. I make it through and look in my rear view and watch the X5 crash right into the embankment. Made me smile. I made it to work fine.
 
pdxleaf
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redpcar redpcar
I'm in the Austin area. 2 days of freezing rain. Not really that cold, just below freezing. Regular roads stayed wet for the most part but bridges and overpasses were a skating rink. Keep in mind that there is very little dept of transportation equipment to handle this. Strategy is to wait. My wife is a school teacher. No class Tues-Thurs because of ice. Now no school Friday because the power is out. This is a strange one. Massive ice accumulation on the trees caused collapses all over the area. BIG trees down. My power was never interrupted but many of my friends have been off since Tues and not expected to come on line until late Fri or Sat. Ironically, I have a tee time Saturday and it's supposed to be 60 deg. I took tomorrow off to chainsaw the debris from my yard.
Check out the pics of the amount of ice. This brought large trees down.

upload_2023-2-2_20-24-37.png upload_2023-2-2_20-25-20.png

Beautiful town you have. Went down for my wife's birthday as she was born in Texas. We left Monday, the day before the ice.

20230128_181634.jpg 20230128_172701.jpg 20230127_141509.jpg 20230127_145759.jpg


Driving down to San Antonio on Sunday we were surprised with the constant traffic the whole way, all doing 70 plus mph. It doesn't take much imagination to guess the impact of freezing rain and ice.

Living in Portland, we regularly experience freezing rain. You can't safely drive in it. I live near a park and knuckleheads always want to go to the park when there's any snow or ice. One guy parked uphill and across the street from us. I watched as he got out of his car then as his car started sliding downhill into mine. (We had kids at home then so more cars than could fit in the driveway.)

Wonder if Texas will ever connect their grid to the rest of the country. Your electric bills are going to be expensive.

Very great country and people.

Next stop is East Coast. More cold and ice.
 
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