Okay, so forget anything I said yesterday about the quality level of in-snow driving around here. Those observations were, it turns out, overly influenced by a sample group limited to anyone who happened to drive past our house yesterday. First, late last night we saw a couple of people just down the road having to push out a car that had gotten stuck in the snow (looked like they were going to fast and skidded into the heavier snow on the shoulder). Driving around today I saw multiple cars fishtailing, a car that had been rear-ended, a guy skidding out on his scooter and (to top it all off) someone took out a utility pole just up the street. I think it was just telephone lines.There were people standing around watching and no one seemed to be in a panic and there were no sparks coming from the downed lines. But the road was completely blocked and I had turn around and take the long way (down to Sparger and back out to Hillsborough) to get over to the radio station.
I think what's going on is that the roads are in an extremely variable state. Most of the main roads have been plowed, there's a pretty good amount of traffic, and the sun has been out all day. So there are stretches where things are mostly clear and open. But every road I was on today had a stretch, and they sometimes came up without warning, right after a curve or something, where that changed and there were slush piles or the amount of clear pavement was down to just tire tracks or (in spots where the road had obviously been in the shade all day) where nothing had melted and it was just a big sheet of packed-down snow. So if you're going out. pay attention and watch out for other drivers who might not be.
I think what's going on is that the roads are in an extremely variable state. Most of the main roads have been plowed, there's a pretty good amount of traffic, and the sun has been out all day. So there are stretches where things are mostly clear and open. But every road I was on today had a stretch, and they sometimes came up without warning, right after a curve or something, where that changed and there were slush piles or the amount of clear pavement was down to just tire tracks or (in spots where the road had obviously been in the shade all day) where nothing had melted and it was just a big sheet of packed-down snow. So if you're going out. pay attention and watch out for other drivers who might not be.
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