On Snow and the South
It snowed last night. They were calling for 4-8 inches. We got about 3 in my area. Yeah, they called off the Pink Tornado’s school. Yeah, they closed my dentist’s office.
Before every snow I know that anyone who has ever lived somewhere other than the South will wonder, mock, and laugh at the fact that the South shuts down with just a little bit of snow.
Let’s look at the facts.
1) Weather maintenance for the road costs money. Salt costs money. Snow plows cost money. In Buffalo, it snows six inches overnight and people know that when they leave their house in the morning, the roads will be completely clear. In Buffalo, they get a lot of snow.
In Raleigh/Durham, we have on average one ground-covering snow a year. Sure, this year we’ve had two. Last year I don’t think we had any. But on average, yeah. It makes absolutely no financial sense for these cities to spend a lot of money on equipment that will be used -maybe- one day a year. So when it snows, the side roads get covered and dangerous.
Also, we live in sprawl (don’t like it, but that’s the fact) and don’t have sidewalks, trains and subways to rely on. It’s cars and buses for us.
2) Although we do have many, many transplants from the north and west here, we’re still largely populated by Southerners. I grew up in the mountains of NC, so I do know how to drive in snow. But for the most part, people have little experience. They don’t know how to drive in it because how would they learn?
I’m just tired of it. No, we don’t deal well with snow on a city-wide or individual level. But the next time you mock us for it, just take a minute and try to wonder WHY these things are the way they are.
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Amen! I grew up in Houston, and get the same kind of mockery when a little ice causes the whole city to shut down every three to five years. I myself may have never learned how to properly drive on snow, but I challenge any of those northerners to drive half as well as I do in a blinding Gulf Coast rain with more than six inches of water on the roads.
Heh. You were a good deal more concise than I was, but you basically summed up what I said about hurricanes last week! ( http://bit.ly/sYqlG )
Mur, the southerners get to do the mocking when northerners are shutting things down due to a “heat wave” of over 100 for a few days.
I’ve lived from north to south in the States: Missouri to Minnesota to Florida to Georgia to Ohio. Minnesota had the infrastructure and could deal with it; like you say, it made fiscal sense to do so. Georgia surprised me with signs at *every* bridge that said: “Bridge Ices Before Road”. I thought that was common sense. Then I lived there for a while and learned why. I went to Boston with a coworker in the winter. He got there and was nerve-racked to drive because of the snow. It’s just different.
I think it’s great that you get snow and can enjoy it. For people who think it’s crazy that things close… just be grateful that they did close and hopefully that limits the number of people having to make a visit to the ER.
Right on, Mur.
The other thing is black ice – up North, it gets cold and stays cold, so they don’t have the wet ice on bridges for more than a day or so. Down here, every winter gets the evenings where the bridges glaze and then get rained on, so every car that hits is skids.
It isn’t the 4-8 inches I mock the Southerners for. While they don’t close EVERYTHING down, there isn’t as much travel in MN when there is 4 inches of snow. What I find interesting though is when I hear that an inch of snow shuts everything down. Most Minnesotans barely even worry about shoveling that.
So true. I grew up in Seattle, WA and it was the same story there. Now I live in Maryland. I think we have snow plows, salt, etc, but a big snow like this still takes awhile to get cleared. The schools are definitely closed. I used to laugh at that, then my boss told me one year the schools didn’t close, and the roads were terrible. Apparently kids who rode buses didn’t get home until 8pm or something. Of course, the parents were upset, so now if it even threatens to snow the schools are closed. When you think about it that way, it makes sense.
I have indulged in some regional ribbing, and I can see why you bristle. I apologize. Of course I know the things you mentioned in this post. It would make no sense for Raleigh/Durham to have salt, sand, a fleet of snowplows, and people to drive them like we do in Grand Traverse County. In the interest of understanding: you hit the nail on the head, those things cost money. In this economic downturn, our road commission is concerned that they’ll run out of money before we run out of winter. The roads are rarely completely clear for the morning commute. Salt doesn’t work if it’s under 20 degrees F, so we’re at times driving on hard pack snow and ice, and that’s dangerous for anybody. Yet out we go, because work doesn’t cancel unless the conditions are truly terrible, and the hospital doesn’t cancel at all. We are known as the rust belt because of the damage that salt does to our cars. This year we had to shovel snow off the roof, lest all that weight cause damage or even a cave in.
Yes, I suffer horribly when the temperature is above 90. I expect I’ll complain bitterly this summer, and will understand if you mock!
No mockery from this northern. I grew up in Connecticut and now live in Ottawa, Ontario. In CT, we could handle an inch or two of snow overnight, but more than that could be a problem.
This was met with much derisive laughter from Canadians, but up here they have a fleet or massive plows and salt trucks.
Trouble is, the first snow fall of the year up here invariably results in a nightmare scenario of fender benders, roll-overs, and chain reaction rear-endings because between March and November, Ottawans forget how to drive in snow.
@Sami – in the North a heat wave only has to be over 90 degrees for 3 or more days, and I’ve never heard of anything shutting down because of it. We DO have central air conditioning.
True, I laughed when I moved down here and had my first grown-up “snow day,” but I did understood the reason for it. Not to mention, who is going to complain about having a little time off/getting to enjoy working from the comfort of your bed/couch? I may hate snow, but a good ol’ fashioned Southern Snow Day is a welcome exchange for having to look at all that white crap outside.
Are there sound fiscal reasons why southern and Border states do not invest in snow removal equipment and personnel? Certainly. Do the residents of those areas have very few opportunities to learn how to drive in snow? Hardly any. Does it nonetheless snow in these areas in winter? Well, yeah, once or twice a winter, sometimes more often, depending where you are. Is that sufficient excuse for the residents of southern and Border states to not learn how to drive in snow, despite the infrequency of that weather condition? No, not really.
So, excuse us if we continue to snort and scoff and giggle when we see footage of you sliding sideways down a hill or helplessly blowing donuts in the middle of the road. It’s really not that hard to do.
Nope. No excusing here.
@jhoysi I guess I’m showing my age. I moved to the DC area back when your were paid “hardship pay” working in the government buildings in the summer. Who would have thought building s city on top of a swamp was a bad idea?
I live in the Catskill mountains, and don’t even consider taking the day off unless the snow is knee deep in the road. As for learning to drive in snow empty parking lots are the best place to learn.
Same deal in New Mexico, only instead of just sprawl we have nearby mountains and a fair amount of our population lives in them, so while we end up getting an inch of snow down here and shutting down the city, they’ve got it way worse up in the mountains.
Also, people from places without much snow have no idea how to drive in it, so it’s sort of dangerous for us to go out there in it anyway.
Eroom Tam – people in Ottawa who forget how to drive in snow are called Torontonians.
wes – Ah memories of learning to drive in the snow covered Sears parking lot and my dad says “now put it into a skid and get out of it….” fun times.
Ms. Lafferty – Walking through the snow (and mostly ice right now) on my way to be packed sardine like into public transport, I have one thing to keep my sanity – your wonderful stories.
I can very much understand your bristling. I’m a native of Southern California who happened to come out to New York for school, and my friends tend to poke fun at my very limited tolerance for cold and ice and snow.
…and then it’s 85 degrees and they wonder why I laugh at them for running towards the air conditioner. I suppose it does all balance out in the end.
You know something else to add to your list. Southern’s tend to take things slower. We like a slower pace of life (I moved to NC from Alabama), and we tend to celebrate the small things more. Or at least we used to, the fast paced life seems to be creeping in more and more.
Anyway, my point is that we rarely see snow, so when we do we sure enough are going to stay home and enjoy it. Snow for us is a treat, and something to be enjoyed and celebrated! Even if it’s only a dusting on the ground. lol
Haters. They’re all just haters because they don’t get to stay home and work in front of their laptop with a cat and cup of coffee.
Just sayin’…
I’m an NC native, but both my parents are from NY. They both can and do drive in snow, but preferably only when no one else seems to be trying to at the moment.
My dad will even drive in the slush/ice (which is what our snow generally turns into before it’s been on the ground more than 5 min) He says, “No, it’s not fun to drive in, but it is possible, contrary to the northerners opinion, which you’ll have to pay close attention to ever hear. They only get a good southern NC slushing every 12 years or so. And when they do, many of those ‘impervious’ northern cities shut down too, and warn their citizens to stay home/indoors.”
My ex-Russian co-worker on the other hand glories in driving ‘with the appearance of being out of control’ just to see the eyes whiten of everyone else on the road. (There are parts of the Red-Neck motif that he might have absorbed too well…)
(Now you understand why mom prefers not to drive in low traction conditions when others are on the road)
As a lifelong New Englander, I will apologize for having previously mocked Southerners and their reaction to snowfall. As an adult, I do understand that it makes sense. But when I first heard of this phenomenon in fifth grade, it was unfathomable. A former classmate who had moved to Texas wrote us a letter specifically to say that his school had been canceled for half an inch. Much ten-year-old pouting ensued.
And, yes, we do have a tougher time dealing with summer heat, due to old houses that lack central air. It is most decidedly *not* a dry heat. Personally, I prefer the cold weather. You can always put more clothing *on*…