Our local weather liars are predicting a minor snow storm along with a fairly heavy freezing rain on top of it beginning Sunday afternoon thru Tuesday morning. Winter storms in this area are very difficult to predict exact locations but everything points to it occurring somewhere along a line from Alabama - Miss border to Ga / SC coast. Further west I have not heard
You northerners know what it is like to drive on ice covered roads but most locals do not. That makes it one great bumper cars derby. The ice on pine trees will cause them to bend, bread,& fall sounding like German 88s. The people who know are already flocking to the grocery stores and the stores will get crazy early Sun morning if forecast stays same. Last time a storm like this occurred both I-85 & I-75 were closed by the Ga DOT and forget the surface streets due to trees across power lines and streets. Suggest that any of you that are planning to drive thru the area of the storm plan not to be here during this time.
Do not expect RRs impacted except for crews not able to get to reporting locations.
BTW: NS finally cleared up intermodal train that derailed near Douglasville, Ga 3 days ago causing 2 days of Amtrak cancellations of Crescent. NOL - ATL. Over 1500 ft of track demolished.
I remember the big snow (all of 7") that hit in Atlanta in the winter of 1982 (or 83?). The perimeter (I 285) was littered for miles with abandoned cars and pickup trucks, stores closed, etc… For a transplanted Chicagoan it was no biggie.
A couple years back we had a big ice storm. The trees in my older neighborhood got a 2" to 3" coating before the branches started to fall off. It sounded for all the world like someone shooting a shotgun in a china shop.
During an ice storm (they are the worst) you are in the pool or on the extra board and you get a call to go to work. Or you have a daily job during certain hours. The streets are glare ice.
Do you make the attempt and hope you get there? Does the railroad you work for make any allowances for the weather and make it “when you can get here?”
Or is it “we aren’t in charge of the weather, only keeping the trains on time - don’t be late”
When it gets really bad, when the state starts closing roads bad, they will allow us to lay off for weather. Others who want to try to make it in will usually leave before they are called. Some have left early enough, or not tried to go home between runs, and get a motel room.
Having survived not one, but two significant ice storms (91 & 98, which shut down the area for over a week), I can identify with that.
In 91, it was dead quiet - nobody was on the road and there was no wind. If you got outside the range of all of the generators, that is. As mentioned, random branches would break, sounding every bit like rifle shots.
In 98, the roads were OK, but the trees and wires that blocked them caused quite the problem. I didn’t get out much on that one, being involved with support at the fire station, but I’m sure there were plenty of breaking branches to hear. Along with the breaking power poles…
Despite getting annual snowfall totals measured in feet around here, some people still can’t figure out they need to slow down. A major military installation brings in plenty of southerners, too, and more than a few of them discover that you really do need to slow down.