When I visited Pittsburgh I was impressed with a

San Francisco of the MidWest, and I expected some grimy, rusty factory city.

Complete with steep hills that get snowed on too.

Dave, How do you manage?

The CHP doesn't even lead "caravans" over the Grapevine like they use to. The CHP just (lazily), shut it down.

Driving the old Grapevine made one appreciate a stick shift and not just riding the breaks. Whoopee !

It is a bitter, 40F chill with clear, a non-insulating sky.

Send rain. The news says the Northern MidWest, Chicago is getting blizzarded.

All and all, better then baking in O.Z. Land.

Moi

Got Weather.

You youngsters who never experienced the old Grapevine missed a thrill. :-\

I pay a fellow with a tractor to plow the snow from my driveway.

Everyone knows how to drive in bad weather around here.

I learned to drive on cobblestone roads with streetcar tracks built into them.

A little snow never stopped me.

And as for Pittsburgh's reputation for pollution - back in the 1950's Allegheny County began to pass restrictions on various types of pollution and the city is bright, clean and fresh today. Been that way for 40 or 50 years. Our factories took pride in being clean and pollution free.

Dave (imported) wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2013 10:47 pm I pay a fellow with a tractor to plow the snow from my driveway.

Everyone knows how to drive in bad weather around here.

I learned to drive on cobblestone roads with streetcar tracks built into them.

A little snow never stopped me.

And as for Pittsburgh's reputation for pollution - back in the 1950's Allegheny County began to pass restrictions on various types of pollution and the city is bright, clean and fresh today. Been that way for 40 or 50 years. Our factories took pride in being clean and pollution free.

Yes I was impressed with Pittsburgh; and its' San Francisco like city streets.

How do they keep those steep streets open in snow and dreaded black ice times. River wants to know too.

Are any of the freeways steep or have they been pretty well leveled out. I don't remember. I did not drive the area.

Moi

Send rain. Send atmospheric moisture. So dry. So dry. Makes 40F feel so cold

They have trucks and crews to distribute anti-skid material and salt to melt the ice and snow. Each township or municipality has piles of salt and anti-skid and the State and County have trucks that can spray an anti-icing fluid.

A bad snow might bring a shutdown for a day but that's it.

Of course those 24 inch snows did create quiet a mess but the regular snowfall doesn't.

The after Christmas/New Years snow this year dumped about 4 inches in my driveway and it was plowed in a day or two.

Tomorrow will be 60 degrees and it will all melt.

Moi, in places where it snows every year like Pittsburgh and the Twin Cities the snow plows are out plowing as soon as the snow starts, the guy that owns the park I live in plowed it three times while the snow storm was going on and then once more when it stopped. People that live in this area do this automatically, I was shoveling my walks from the time the snow started, who wants to shovel 2 ft of snow, you shovel 4 inches several times its much easier.

As for the grapevine, I think your right let those truckers hit that black ice and go off the cliff.

River

This year, we have the story of "we don't have any supplies or money" to clear the roads.

What the hell?

You didn't use ANY last year, people. We had one nasty ice storm, and you left it there to melt. "Can't do a thing about the ice". Oh, OK...

As much as I don't want to keep it, this is why I have a 4wd truck now, and should probably invest in a small tractor.

Today it's +56F and sunny. Tomorrow, +33F and freezing rain. Love it...

Tonight, FLOOD WARNINGS...

moi621 (imported) wrote: Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:11 pm Is it cold enough for Ice Road Truckers as seen on History Channel

to truck across Lake Ladoga?



May Father Frost and Snow Maiden treat you kindly.

Lake Ladoga? Wow-I haven't been there in twenty years....lets do a recreation off The Great Patriotic War and cross it with provisions to relieve the brave citizens of Leningrad. What? Oh, Okay, so St. Petersburg doesn't need reprovisioning. I still think crossing it in Winter would be really great with a Vodka soaked wildly smiling Russian trucker hauling...Vodka.

You should have lived in Pittsburgh when I did Moi.

The collars of all my white dress shirts turned black.

Wilkensburg decided to save money by not removing snow.

Nothing could go up the side of the hill I lived on when

it was icy, the salt truck opened the dropper and slid

down the hill.

A guy who lived next door kept getting his VW high centered on the snow.

It was an adventure.

WHen I was in college, I commuted back and forth to classes in a VW Beetle. THere was this hill near my parents house, the short way to the campus. In the winter if the hill got so bad that the VW couldn't make it up, then I would turn around and drive the long way and get there about 15 minutes later. The VW used to pass cars skidding and spinning on the hill. Good little car.

There's always another way to get there from here...