Apocalypse to strike Durham on Thu. (may change to rain)

Judging from the crowds at the North Pointe Kroger this evening -- where one could literally not get a single push-cart or handbasket at 6pm -- you'd think the end times were upon us and the Four Horsemen were on the rampage coming up from the Deep South towards the Bull City.

The cause of this mass pandemonium? The threat of some wayward "wintry mix" cascading towards the Triangle from the frigid Arctic (or at least Charlotte). Yes, we might get a couple of hours of slush, maybe some snow.

So, brine up the bridges, overpasses and arterials? Check - done, from the looks of it driving around town this evening. And well done, from the looks of it, by our friends in local and state government.

Prep the emergency action and school closure plans? Check, absolutely so.

Remain vigilant in watching the morning news, all the better to see Mark Roberts make the leap from annoying traffic guy to annoying car dealership commercial guy? Check.

Make hysteria-driven runs to the grocery store in case you run out of bread or milk during the storm? Er, well, check, apparently. After all, it would appear the intemperate weather could last hours, and might require one to eat what's in the back of the cupboard instead of the taste du jour at the corner eatery.

If I had the writing chops of Jim Wise, I'd tell us that we don't appreciate how bad it could be, and then spin forth the story of the Blizzard of Ought-Six, when the lesser-known and frequently unacknowledged Duke brother (A. E. "Tiny" Duke) got caught in a six-foot-tall snow that overwhelmed his sixty-inch-tall self, leaving one grieving brother to eventually name a broom closet at Duke's West Campus after him. But I don't, so I'll pass over that unfortunate event without further comment.

Perhaps my senses are dulled to the risks of the mid-Atlantic winter because this will be my first chance to actually experience it. I've lived in the polar opposites (no pun intended) to this climate. On the one hand, growing up in F-L-A, a climate crisis happens whenever you have to put on a sweater. And they break into your 4pm "Star Trek" episodes when you're a kid to tell you if snowflakes have been spotted, no joke.

On the other hand, I've survived ten years in Boston, including my last, terrible white season, when I got to witness skiers passing pedestrians and stuck cars alike on Massachusetts Ave. on their way to a Dunkin' Donuts. (You never had to worry about inclement weather closing a Dunkin's. For one thing, they just didn't close in any weather. But, hey, if one was closed, there were eight other ones in visual range to choose from anyway.)

I'd like encourage you to stay tuned to Bull City Rising for the latest on tomorrow's inclement weather. But then I'd give up the straight face in a fit of giggles and ask, what the hell are you doing, looking to a blog for your weather report? Turn on ABC 11. Or Weather Underground.

Because if tomorrow really brings the snow-pocalypse, you darn well better believe I'll be huddling in the living room, trying to build a wood stove out of an old fondue pot and some empty Coke cans, using the laptop only for the occasional warmth that emanates from its dim backlight.

But at least I'll have enough bread and milk. I mean, I stopped by Kroger. Didn't you remember to stock up?

Comments

[Will]

Having survived the 1" snow storm of 2006 and the 4 hour drive from RTP to Raleigh (where I was living at the time) - I'd suggest a large empty cup in the car over the milk and bread. It beats getting out of the car and running into the woods :)

[Valerie]

You're going to have to win the weather blogging with "snow-pocalypse." Genius!

Were they really putting salt on the roads? Because the jokes-on-us has always been that they put sand on the roads instead of salt. Sand being tiny balls of glass, we aren't sure how this makes slick roads safer.

Eh, I survived the ice storm of...was it '02?... (okay, not really; I hitched a plane out after a few days of it) and can report the absolutely primary concern is a heat source. A house can get really cold really quickly.

[Joe]

If we had backyard chickens, cows, and wheat, we wouldn't have this problem. :) More seriously, I was surprised during the last ice storm how warm I could make one room by lighting every single candle in the house, putting them all in that room, and closing the door. And I didn't die of fire or CO poisoning or anything. I even had to take some of the extra blankets off the bed because I got so warm (I wasn't really trying to stay warm so much as I was trying to read).

I should really save the frivolous commments for tomorrow, in case I'm stuck in the house but still have net.access; OTOH, I might lose the net too, and then were would I be? :)

[Valerie]

It's goats we need, not cows. I'm starting a petition for Urban Goats.

How many candles do you have?!

[Michael Bacon]

You know, the regular ritual of the run to the grocery store seems outright ridiculous, until you actually live through a full tilt North Carolina ice storm. See, I've done Minnesota, so nobody tell me I don't know what winter looks like, but when it comes to impeding travel, Minnesota has nothing on a NC winter storm. Up there, it gets eyelash-freezing cold, so any snow that comes down stays snow, and can be promptly cleared by an armada of snow clearing equipment roughly the size of the D-Day invasion force.

Here, it doesn't just snow. Okay, sometimes it does, but then you just have to worry about people who can't drive in the stuff running into you. If you have snow sense, you can get by just fine (even in a little VW Jetta - no SUV needed). But no, that's not what will mess you up. Meet the new bane of your existence, "freezing rain." No, it's not the same as sleet. It's rain that's wet on the way down, but turns to ice when it hits. Makes black ice, which you never see coming until your wheels start to spin furiously. Hit a patch with all four wheels, and you're going for a ride...

Add the way it clings to branches overhanging powerlines, and, well, that's how you get stuck in the Great Power Outage of, what was it, '03? Ask anyone who had no power for over a week how that went.

Live through that once, and the next time you hear "wintery mix," you'll be at Kroger's too.

[SB]

Did you like how the school systems delayed school in expectation of the snow-pocalypse - before even checking the actual conditions? I remember many days growing up in our great city where school was canceled on the premise that frozen precip was headed our way...

Oh, and good thing it rained after all. My car was covered in brine from all the fantastic snow-pocalypse preparation...since I can't wash it, at least mother nature helped a little!

[erin]

This is my first chance to see this weather, too. As one of my colleagues at work said yesterday, "Make sure you go out tonight and get bread, eggs, and milk. Because clearly the only appropriate food for a blackout . . . is french toast."

[absent.canadian]

Two weeks ago I drove my rear-wheel drive car (with summer tires) home from Canada - where there was over a foot of snow on the ground, and temperatures well into the negative digits. The idea of a city shutting down from a bit of slush is endlessly amusing to me ... but I have also learned it's best to stay home on these days. Not because I can't handle the weather, but rather because the majority of native Southerners lose their minds and drive like drunken, crazed lunatics.

PS - I haven't been to the grocery store in four days, and it'll take more than a "wintery mix" to make me stock up on bread and milk (because what better to stock up on than perishables).

[hurley]

Both in 2000 (20 inches one day in January) and in the 2002 ice storm, the Kroger I go to on Hillsbourough Rd ran out of everything except mustard, and the lines at the checkouts were 30 deep, three days after the storm. Grocery stores only have a couple days supplies in the back and NCDOT doesn't have the equipment to quickly reopen the interstates. Better safe than sorry, especially if kids are home from school and react very badly when the milk runs out!

[James]

So on my way home last night, I got the call I was dreading-- my wife letting me know we were out of whole milk for our toddler, and I needed to stop at the Kroger on my way home. Not only did I fear battling the crowds for the precious white stuff, I wasn't looking forward to the embarrassment of being one of those people who buys milk before a big storm.

Well, imagine my surprise when I got to the Kroger (at 54 and Fayetteville) and found a parking space near the entrance, found a mostly deserted store, lots of milk for my daughter on the shelf, and NO ONE waiting in line to use the self checkout machine. All at 5:45pm on the eve of the first "major winter weather event" of the new year.

I'm still confused why the store was so empty and the milk so plentiful. My conclusion is that there has been so much turnover in the housing market in Woodcroft and with the new homeowners around Southpoint that they don't realize what they're 'supposed' to do before a storm.... hopefully this state of affairs will last.

[Hovercraft]

> absent.canadian: but I have also learned it's best to stay home on these days. Not because I can't handle the weather, but rather because the majority of native Southerners lose their minds and drive like drunken, crazed lunatics.

You know, I used to feel this way too, being a hearty midwesterner used to driving in snow all the time. But now I wonder. I think native southerners understand that this is bad stuff to drive in. The problem may actually be all of us overconfident northerners who have moved here in droves--and think we remember how to navigate this stuff. "Aw, this? This is nothin'!" (crashes)

[Michael Bacon]

To clarify a few points:

1. It's not slush that's the problem. It's black ice. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_ice) There's a very big difference. Black ice is normally the biggest problem on days like today, because it looks almost identical to wet pavement. Snow is a cakewalk to drive in compared to black ice. (Again, four years in Minnesota. I know whereof I speak.)

2. The problem for southern drivers isn't craziness, it's an inherent lack of experience. The thought process is, if you get a patch of traction, gun the engine so you get propulsion, rather than the "easy on the gas, easy on the brake" technique that will get you safely through a foot of snow. I remember, during a big snowstorm in 2000, trying to help a 1970's era American boat with some massive engine, rear wheel drive, and a Texas plate out of snow on Gregson. As soon as we'd push, he'd gun it, spraying us with slush. I simultaneously felt sorry for him and wanted to shoot him. (The other problem, of course, is the "My SUV is invincible!" strategy. If we do get a big snow, guaranteed that over half the stranded vehicles you'll see will be SUVs.)

3. More than anything, of course, it's lack of equipment. This is a perfectly rational response. It is incredibly expensive to maintain a fleet of snow removal equipment capable of clearing the city in a day, when it's only needed once every three years. Far more economically feasible to just shut the city down for a day and have fun with it. Better for mental health, too.'

4. The reason bread and milk are what you stock up on is because they'll be the first thing the grocery stores will have to throw out in the case of a power emergency, and because they have to be brought in fresh regularly, if trucks can't get through, they'll run out of that. If it's a snow storm, you can keep milk in a cooler full of snow out on the porch, but the grocery store can't do that and still sell it to you.

Once more to recap: A North Carolina ice storm is a very different animal than typical northern winter weather. I was privileged enough to be in Minnesota when they had a freak ice storm, of the freezing rain variety, a real rarity up there. It was notable because the local hospital ran out of crutches because of all of the broken legs.

[Phillip]

chickens, goats, candles... what is this, a cult in formation?

And yeah, as an earlier commenter said, since we're as likely to lose power in our homes as we are likely to lose traction on the streets, then why buy stuff that goes bad if unrefrigerated over night? stock up on canned veggies; those will last, and probably until the apocalypse.

[chris]

Liquor doesn't require refrigeration either. I don't drink very often, but if the power goes out, and it's cold outside, I've found that binge drinking is the most appropriate course of action.

[JDC]

It's really a combination of overconfident Yankees who don't bat an eye at a little bit of slush and southerners who don't know how to drive (even in the summer) that makes the roadways so hazardous. Not one or the other.

I'm proud to be the only employee here who lives within walking distance, so as long as I stay vigilant, I should be able to dodge a car skidding toward the sidewalk.

[Samantha]

Turns out the snow-pocalypse may be on Saturday, rather than today. What's a difference of two days for an event of this cosmic importance?

[Valerie]

The school systems get digs for announcing a closing the night before at the hint of weather, but it's for a good reason. The buses have to get out very early in the morning, and you can't just leave half the kids at home--the ones who live on the streets that won't get scraped in time. There are snow days built into the calendar, anyway.

Another difference about the ice/snow here is that it might snow during the night, mostly melt in the afternoon, refreeze the next night, and then get covered in snow. Then you have some fluffy stuff on top of scattered ice puddles. Better to just be in a place where it's uniformly cold and snowy for months than be surprised by different road surfaces.