West Coast Snow Storm, Part II

[fanforever1986]

The lower mainland and Vancouver Island are about to get pounded with another 30-45 cm of snow over the next 24 hours.

Living out here and being from Calgary, it's quite comical to watch. The cities are not prepared in the slightest for snow removal, and drivers do not understand snow = slippery. The funniest part may be that the majority of vehicles in the ditch are 4x4's, lol.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/wea...s/CABC0308.htm

University snow days rule.

EDIT: looks like they were a little too excited when they wrote in the estimated totals. I don't care how hard it is to forecast weather, how can 45 cm turn into 5 cm?

[metallicat]

Jeez, look how warm it is though. You get that snow off the roads, and the streets will be in fine driving condition within an hour. I wish we had it that nice here.

[Igottago]

Yeah its funny..on Monday they shut down some schools, etc. In Calgary it would be business as usual. There just isn't the infrastructure to deal with this kind of weather here.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Igottago

Yeah its funny..on Monday they shut down some schools, etc. In Calgary it would be business as usual.

I'm pretty sure that the city of Calgary would pretty much shut down if we received 30-45 cm of snow in 24 hours. That sounds like the big spring snowstorm we had in March 1998. It would be utter chaos for the first day or so.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Reaper

I'm pretty sure that the city of Calgary would pretty much shut down if we received 30-45 cm of snow in 24 hours. That sounds like the big spring snowstorm we had in March 1998. It would be utter chaos for the first day or so.

Man I remember that one... I had to walk to work at the gas station that day, took me like an hour. I think we even had about 10 cars/trucks show up for gas. I seem to recall it was on a weekend I think, so I'm not sure if the school's were closed at all.

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by Reaper

I'm pretty sure that the city of Calgary would pretty much shut down if we received 30-45 cm of snow in 24 hours. That sounds like the big spring snowstorm we had in March 1998. It would be utter chaos for the first day or so.

I'm talking about the reaction to what we got last weekend..i'm not sure how many centimeteres it was but it sure didn't seem like much compared to what I've experienced in Calgary. So if that is any indication of how Vancouver will handle things, then this upcoming dump will pretty much annihilate the city.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Man I remember that one... I had to walk to work at the gas station that day, took me like an hour. I think we even had about 10 cars/trucks show up for gas. I seem to recall it was on a weekend I think, so I'm not sure if the school's were closed at all.

Wasn't that St Patty's day? A Tuesday I think. I was in Edgemont at the time, nothing in the neighbourhood vehicle-wise moved until the evening. I think someone went by on a skidoo and the A Channel Hummer drove by just below our house. My Mercury Topaz was buried right over the hood.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by habernac

Wasn't that St Patty's day? A Tuesday I think. I was in Edgemont at the time, nothing in the neighbourhood vehicle-wise moved until the evening. I think someone went by on a skidoo and the A Channel Hummer drove by just below our house. My Mercury Topaz was buried right over the hood.

Hmm... maybe I thought it was a weekend because the whole city was shut down...

[Ford Prefect]

Yup ... it was St. Patrick's Day. I lived in Hawkwood at the time and I walked over to Crowfoot Centre. A few businesses were open but the only place doing any business was the liquor store. Everybody was in a pretty festive mood as I recall.

[Knut]

I spent the snowstorm day pulling cars out of snow banks with my 85 LandCruiser... then driving up and down wildwood streets trying to pack the snow down so people could drive out of there....

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Reaper

I'm pretty sure that the city of Calgary would pretty much shut down if we received 30-45 cm of snow in 24 hours. That sounds like the big spring snowstorm we had in March 1998. It would be utter chaos for the first day or so.

First day, yes, after that we'd be fine. Day 2 in Vancouver would still look like the Ice storm of 1997(?) though.

[fanforever1986]

Originally Posted by Hesla

I spent the snowstorm day pulling cars out of snow banks with my 85 LandCruiser... then driving up and down wildwood streets trying to pack the snow down so people could drive out of there....

Well aren't you just the model citizen.

Just kidding, lol.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by habernac

Wasn't that St Patty's day? A Tuesday I think. I was in Edgemont at the time, nothing in the neighbourhood vehicle-wise moved until the evening. I think someone went by on a skidoo and the A Channel Hummer drove by just below our house. My Mercury Topaz was buried right over the hood.

I remember having to drive to my practicum that day on a real "can't miss" type of day. When I look at it now, it was crazy.

I lived up Uxbridge (in between the University and Hospital) and I had to drive to my practicum which was just west of the Shaganappi Golf Course. I was late and had completely misjudged for appropriate speed when traveling south on University Drive right by 16 Avenue NW. On a long stretch of uniterupted roadway like that patch one can build up speed if they're not careful.

So, I'm rolling along in my Dodge Daytona R/T and I see the indicators flashing for the upcoming red light. I start to apply the brakes and it is revealed to me that we were in the midst of a particularly warm and humid snowstorm. It turns out that I was driving too fast for conditions and my car began to fishtail to the right. I corrected and straightened the car out for a split second before I hit a random patch of gravel. This caused me to fishtail to the left and I corrected to the right before my car bounced into the curb like a curling stone on a fresh sheet. The car spun around slowly and came to rest facing the wrong direction in the south lane with its ass end slightly riding the curb.

I hopped out of my car and surveyed its condition. It looked like the rear left wheel had a cracked lip and that it would be fine to drive in those conditions (stupid, stupid me).

Did I mention that I had to go to Mount Royal College right after I got some papers signed by my Practicum Supervisor before returning to my apartment near the U of C?

With all the gunning along on Crowchild to and from home I managed to put some stress on that cracked wheel lip. I pulled into my parking spot at my apartment and the tire practically fell off the rim. Maybe it wasn't safe to drive after all.

When I changed out the rim for the spare I discovered that there was a 3 x 8 ish piece of the rim missing.

I was really lucky I didn't get killed with all the hills and short stopping distances as I was late and thought I could "make up" time. The amount of cushion provided by the snow saved my ass as I piloted my car on the curves like a rally car driver. I was super lucky.

Kids: Don't try that at home.