Seattle had been in a deep freeze for the week of Thanksgiving.
Monday evening's commute, which was after a heavy snowfall, melt, and re-freeze to record lows, was INSANE. People's bus commutes that normally take 30 minutes took 3 hours. Folks were trapped on the highways for 10 to 17 hours. A bus ride from Seattle down an hour south took one friend 14 hours. On one bus the entire time. All that time was spent sitting in traffic that was simply not moving - there were so many roads closed, so many alternate highways closed, that the main routes had more traffic than ever before in history on them. Lesson learned: get alternate travel options ready for next emergency (I'm buyin' me an inflatable! And if I rigged a mast and sail, i wouldn't even need fuel.... maybe a little wooden sailboat and a kayak too.) Other people gave up on their buses that were never showing up, and walked home hours in the snow. One guy was not clothed for such a walk, so he actually walked to the REI headquarters store just north of downtown, outfitted himself anew from head to toe, and got a great deal as it was their winter sale! Ha! So, equipped in all the latest gear, and with crampons and walking poles, he had an easy and relatively quick walk home 15 miles. He was still hours ahead of his coworkers who drove or bussed!
It was one week i was happy to be unemployed. I didn't *have* to be anywhere - the parents and I had already agreed before the storms hit that I'd stay put and they'd stay put, no trying to get to each other on Thanksgiving. So I was worry free, and could simply enjoy the cold and snow from my cozy litle house, or go play in it without having to get to work in it.
So, now that the city is back to normal rain and wind, folks have lots of watercooler stories to tell. And there are some pretty awesome youtube videos of the Seattle ice:
Cars and multiple bus slidings on Capitol Hill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg&feature=related
Audi trying to get up Queen Anne Hill, crash #1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILDOqppQL-U&
Audi crash #2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym9K3z0CL_U
Bus trying to get up a hill near me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kMkYhc4F2g&feature=related
Folks watch the mess out their windows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HyZT9nscxE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5AUznN3VXg&feature=related
And, lastly, a bunch of crazy insane people sledding down a closed street, over a closed bridge above I-5, and down another hill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-z9jzCbaWQ
The big blue round plastic things they're riding down the hill are the city's recycling bins. Notice the shot of the beer in the snow? Yes, that's Capitol Hill for ya. Drunken sledding next to the highway.
The last Mayor lost his job in part because of the city's horrific snow response in 2008, and this new Mayor was actually *boasting* of his new preparations. "We're ready!", he said. HA. Gosh, none of them checked to see what the brine solution they were prepping the roads with, before the storm, did in very cold conditions. Guess what? IT MAKES ROADS WORSE. Ha! So Mr Preparation actually made the situation worse. "We didn't know!" he says now. Well, wouldn't you want to know that kind of information about something that's very expensive that you're buying to put on the streets IN WINTER?!?! "how does it act in cold temperatures?" Lordy lordy.
Every time I hear someone say "But I'm from [wherever] and I know how to drive in the snow!" I just want to punch them. Fine! Easy! Drive on 4' of dry, packed, unmelted, pristine snow, on flat ground, in -10 degrees that only changes 2 degrees of temperature either way for weeks on end. Or on a road that's been fully plowed, like in Chicago. Easy! Now look at those videos. Do you see much snow on the road? No. It's BLACK ICE, not snow, that is the problem. And not just plain Black Ice. it's a sheet of black ice, with melted-and-refrozen ice in some spots, and semi-melted-ice in other spots, and drifting snow mixing it up a little,and winds changing the temperature back and forth across the melting point every hour. Chains, studs, doesn't matter, you will not make it up that hill. Police won't go up the hill. Fire won't go up the hill. But some dude from Chicago just KNOWS he knows better than all the "idiots" in Seattle who "don't know how to drive in the snow" and he goes for it. And slides. Sigh. :)
As for why there were so many people out, the forecasting out here is tricky. There's a great book about it:
http://www.amazon.com/Weather-Pacific-Northwest-Cliff-Mass/dp/0295988479/
It's very very tough to accurately predict snowfall in the city of Seattle. We should get a bit better at it when the coastal radar is installed (2012, I think?). But even then, the local weather has a way of thumbing its nose at all the data, models, forecasts etc, and just saying "Nope! Gonna do something really wild! Not telling when or where!" and surprising everyone. Even Cliff Mass, author of that book and usually spot-on forecaster, was saying "No snow in Seattle". He rode his bike to work Monday morning, he was so sure of no snow. He has since apologized. :)
