Seems that Raleigh learned nothing from Atlanta.

[amerikat]

Watching the news and Raleigh is just a giant parking lot. People abandoning their cars.
Plows and salt trucks can't get through. What a mess.

[Siwsan]

1. Ice or snow?? Or, both??

Maybe there are a lot of northern 'transplants' who think they remember how to drive in winter weather. Trust me, even the people in MICHIGAN forget how to drive on snowy roads.

[amerikat]

3. I think they first had ice

and now it's snowing on the ice. Worst possible condition.

[Siwsan]

5. Absolutely the worst scenario

At least we had a break between our ice storm and the 20+ inch snow fall. Then the polar vortex hit and it got too cold for road salt to work. Right now our 20 degrees feels almost tropical!

[amerikat]

8. minus 12 this morning in upstate NY.

This storm should get here(upstate NY) tomorrow afternoon. Should
be all snow, no ice.

[Siwsan]

10. We were close to that in Flint, this morning

No serious snow in our forecast, for a change. I just read that Flint is now the 10th 'snowiest' city in the country. We've had 64.5 inches of snow, with over 32 of those inches falling in January!. Pretty much a record.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. At least schools decided to cancel - the big issue is people ignoring the forecast...

it was clear what was coming...but when everyone goes to work, then decide to leave around the same time....the congestion, combined with the nature of the storm (very cold, very small snow that melted when cars passed over - then refroze)....all ingredients for an awful mess.

[amerikat]

6. Hope you are safe at home.

Looking forward to spring and gardening as I know you are.

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. yep - we did some shopping before noon. But we are lucky - retired/able to work from home.

Spent much of this afternoon doing garden planning, in fact!

[KamaAina]

9. Durham schools were open until noon

and as Durhamite Pam Spaulding (yes, of Pam's House Blend fame), who I follow on FB, points out, many, many people have to go to work in crappy weather. She works in IT at Duke, and had to prepare some equipment. She said the manager of her local Bojangles was going to have to stay in a hotel in order to open tomorrow morning, unless the power went out. And so on.

[dgibby]

4. I hear Charlotte's in the same boat.

Roanoke, Va. isn't looking much better.

[zazen]

11. actually, I think Atlanta had learned nothing from Raleigh

In 2005?, we had an embarrassing disaster when they let the schools out at the same time as everyone else went home, with only 1/2 inch? or snow on the interstates, and kids were stranded on buses for eight hours.

Ever since then Wake County, and Raleigh, have been much more proactive about salting roads and canceling schools. They get teased for "overreacting," but they know the consequences if they underreact.

So even though Wake County Schools are now canceling school days to the point of eliminating Spring Break (for make-up days), they made the right call this morning. It was clear until around noon, and then the accumulation came on in 30 minutes--we went from nothing to an inch really fast--and then all the businesses let out at the same time.

Thank God the kids weren't on the roads, or their parents going to get them.

Durham Public Schools, however, were in until 12:30 or so, and since this is a very interconnected Metro area, I think some of that additional traffic blocked I-85. It wasn't the only factor, but it certainly didn't help matters.

[amerikat]

13. They had three days warning on this storm.

It's gonna be a mess for days.

[Jenoch]

12. Everbody getting on the freeway at the same time

is never a good thing, ice or sunshine. Leaving your car on the roadway makes things even worse.

This weather was all predicted. I just don't understand people sometimes.