A little over a year ago, I moved 230 miles south from Lincoln, NE to Wichita, KS. It’s not a huge distance. It can be traveled in just more than four hours by car. But it’s the difference between expecting regular snowfall during the winter and not. It’s the difference between experiencing accumulation and not.
Wichita rarely gets snow–and when it does, it generally disappears within 24 hours.
Except for the past two winters. Last year, Wichita had enough snow that they cancelled school for a week.
At first, I, like a whole host of northerners, scoffed at what I considered to be unnecessary closures. But a year of living in Wichita has convinced me that a little snow in Southern climes really IS worth freaking out about.
Do you doubt me?
If you’re from Nebraska or South Dakota or Minnesota, you probably do. But let me make my case.
You’ve heard some from the south talk about how their road maintenance crews are ill-equipped for any amount of snow. This is true in many places–Wichita has snowplows and salt stores, but many more southerly locations do not.
But I feel that the reason a little snow is worth freaking out about has to do with another sort of resource: human resources.
The fact is, southern drivers haven’t driven in snow. They don’t know what they should or shouldn’t be doing. They don’t have the knowledge or the experience to safely handle even small amounts of snow.
In Nebraska, there were three types of unsafe winter drivers: the kids who’d never driven on ice before, the new SUV owners who were overconfident because of their vehicles, and the old women who were roadhogs.
In Wichita, there is only one type of unsafe winter drivers: everyone.
Because no one knows how to drive in snow.
This isn’t their fault. It’s not that they’re bad drivers (although many of them are, unfortunately). It’s just that they have neither the education nor the experience to drive in snow appropriately.
They’re terrified, so they drive far more slowly than the weather merits. They can’t see well, so they drive far more closely together than is safe. They start sliding, so they slam on their brakes. They slide more and it’s slow-mo bumper cars.
The few who do know how to drive in snow (maybe they moved down from Nebraska?) don’t have much recourse except to drive slowly but with adequate distance between cars. The roads are too clogged with slow-driving citizens to let them practice their safe-snow-driving skills.
So what is a southern city to do?
I recommend that they freak out.
Close schools. Let people work from home. Only have essential employees come in.
Keep people off the roads so that the only people on them are those who either have to be or who know how to safely drive on them.
Short of transplanting every resident to a norther clime for a winter and having them practice driving with a native, I think that freaking out is the most reasonable option.
You left out the driver who doesn’t find it necessary to change his normal jackrabbit starts and speed up to a stop and then slam on the brakes pattern of driving!
I’m probably one of those unsafe NE drivers you talk about. Since I’m from southern CA, I have zero experience driving in the snow. Since we moved to NE, I’m starting to get some snow driving experience.
My husband just chuckles though at what Nebraskans consider a lot of snow. He’s from the mountains of Colorado where 10-13 feet of snow is the norm.
It’s all about perspective.
I’ve lived in Alabama for approximately 36 of my almost (as of next Saturday!) 40 years. About two of the other years not in AL were in GA, and the remaining two or so were in MO. (The numbers here are to tell you that I UNDERSTAND!) Anyhow, schools have been closed here for two days, and we’ve had maybe two inches of accumulation. Last week the middle 1/3 of AL was absolutely shut down because of an unexpected snowstorm, and people literally spent the night in their vehicles while stalled on the interstate. People we actually know did this!
We shut down with good reason. :-)
That is all. :-)
This is exactly what I wish some of the scoffing Northern folks would understand. Cities don’t want to spend the money on the equipment needed when it would only be used here once or twice a year. We do have snow plows and such in Knoxville, but we’re still not as equipped as Northern cities would be. My son is RI misses the days when a snowfall meant a cozy day at home. :-)
My husband is used to driving in snow as he is from Idaho, so he rarely stays home from work due to snow, but I do get concerned about other drivers with less experience causing problems for him. People seem to either go as fast as they would without snow, or go so slow they have a hard time getting traction up hills.