WxKnurd Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Listening to the Atlanta COO not willing to take blame for city streets; he's blaming it on the Interstate gridlock. These people are amazing; nobody wants to own up they totally screwed up.. I think there is too much onus on the importance of government responsibility in all this but that's not needed in banter and I'll stop myself right there. I know the feeling of walking home in the snow due to gridlock, I did it in Jan. '05 while at NC State and the comedy I saw from how people acted and drove was mind-blowing for this Hickory guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metalicwx366 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I guess the population of Atlanta is nowhere near as educated as that of Waycross.Clearly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterhawk Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 At least Henry County has 3 sand trucks; wow!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superjames1992 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 SE ridge FTL? We're going to beat down that sucker with collective willpower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superjames1992 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Hey, the 12z Euro shows a snowstorm at D10. There's a 1042 mb HP in PA. I'm sure that will verify. All-in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxKnurd Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Hey, the 12z Euro shows a snowstorm at D10. There's a 1042 mb HP in PA. I'm sure that will verify. All-in? Nope, I'll be home at D10, let it get delayed 3 days and then All-in since I'll be out of town again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superjames1992 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Nope, I'll be home at D10, let it get delayed 3 days and then All-in since I'll be out of town again. You know, the 18z GFS actually has a fantasy storm on D10-D11, too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold Rain Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Hey, the 12z Euro shows a snowstorm at D10. There's a 1042 mb HP in PA. I'm sure that will verify. All-in? Sure. Even though it'll be a 1020 high in Toronto in 10 days. Haha! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterhawk Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I think there is too much onus on the importance of government responsibility in all this but that's not needed in banter and I'll stop myself right there. I know the feeling of walking home in the snow due to gridlock, I did it in Jan. '05 while at NC State and the comedy I saw from how people acted and drove was mind-blowing for this Hickory guy. Agree a lot needs to be spread around including people making individual decisions and we definitely don't want to go down the other road; we're close to the same thought probably. Kudo's to my oldest Son for deciding to stay at a friends house near his work because he didn't want to get stuck in the traffic; unfortunately not everybody had that option. Growing up in the North I still love the snow and driving in it but I will not get out around here unless there's minimal or no traffic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jburns Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Lookout, the only thing I can hope will make a difference this time is the stranded kids. People get upset when they are stuck in traffic, but they forget quickly because hey, Atlanta=traffic. However, I'm not sure they'll easily forget their kids having been stranded in buses and stuck at school overnight. There might be a lot more pushback this time. Maybe. I know I'll be approaching the school superintendent about his longstanding reluctance to close schools when inclement weather is coming. Let me predict his response. You can get back to me with my verification score. Here goes. The safety of our students is our top priority. Every effort is made to not end up in the situation in which we found ourselves today. However, when dealing with nature there are times when the unexpected happens. When bad weather is possible, beginning around 4am, school officials are monitoring conditions and receiving updates from the NWS and GDOT. In this case nothing we were told even hinted at the serious and dangerous conditions that quickly developed this morning. A decision to dismiss was made immediately when we were informed that the forecasts were wrong and conditions were deteriorating rapidly. As you know, our buses run multiple routes so it takes several hours from the time the decision to close is made until the last students are delivered to their homes. Many of our buses were stuck in traffic on their first run and never arrived at schools to pick up their second and third loads. We prepare for this type of situation and at no time were any students remaining at school danger of any type. There was plenty of food and beverages. Teachers and administrators supervised all students and everyone took the situation relatively in stride. I would like to thank blah, blah, blah........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherokeeGA Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Warnings went up for Northern counties as it started; Forsyth let out early but we were lucky because it started snowing here later than Cherokee. Cherokee's supt is way too conservative.. A lot of this goes to DOT and local road folks; imho.. They weren't ready. We had something like this in 2010/2011 and changes were made. They weren't good enough. We need pretreating available and pre-positioning of trucks. Everybody knows about the bridges/overpasses/elevated roadways; those idiots need to be ready. Heads should roll.. FWIR Cherokee County was added to the warning around 1pm today. It started snowing at 10:45 in mby and by 1pm I had 1.5" on the ground. The superintendent announced closure at 11am, and they started busing elementary kids home a little after 12pm, with middle and high school starting at 1pm. The warning was like closing the barn door hours after the horse ran off. I'm not excusing the superintendent, but I also think the NWS should have had the far north counties under a warning last night. I'm not a meteorologist but I read enough here to know that they were undercalling it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookout Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Lookout, the only thing I can hope will make a difference this time is the stranded kids. People get upset when they are stuck in traffic, but they forget quickly because hey, Atlanta=traffic. However, I'm not sure they'll easily forget their kids having been stranded in buses and stuck at school overnight. There might be a lot more pushback this time. Maybe. I know I'll be approaching the school superintendent about his longstanding reluctance to close schools when inclement weather is coming. Yeah, I've never heard people so pissed about a busted forecast before. I think the kids being stranded has really gotten to people and frankly who can blame them? All they heard leading up to this was those in or north of town shouldn't worry because the only significant snow would be south of town and there was only going to be 0.083535 of an inch in northern northern cobb county and over ellijay because glen burns wsb's super duper "world heavyweight champion" computer model says so. The ellijay mention is because it's the main location that burns super duper world heavyweight champion computer model ever forecasts snow showers for....oh and blairsville. But channel 11 just had the story of some guy who had to abandon his car (got stuck) so he could go pick up his son from school. He was pissed because at the same time they kept telling everyone to stay off the roads, they were telling the parents to come get their kid. And he wasn't the only one literally having to walk to school to pick up their kids. Just amazing. The anger out there is something else. My father said he heard someone specifically blaming the nws and local mets. I've never really seen that before on the air. Certainly a lot of questions about why there wasn't more warning or heads up about the possibility of it happening. Still have some fairy dust falling out there. Nice to see a white ground at night again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jburns Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 FWIR Cherokee County was added to the warning around 1pm today. It started snowing at 10:45 in mby and by 1pm I had 1.5" on the ground. The superintendent announced closure at 11am, and they started busing elementary kids home a little after 12pm, with middle and high school starting at 1pm. The warning was like closing the barn door hours after the horse ran off. I'm not excusing the superintendent, but I also think the NWS should have had the far north counties under a warning last night. I'm not a meteorologist but I read enough here to know that they were undercalling it. From this limited info I don't see that superintendent did anything wrong. No warning before hand. Snow started around 10:45. 15 minutes later the superintendent ordered schools dismissed. 2 hours later the NWS issued a warning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lookout Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Met on channel 5 (not cook but can't remember his name) essentially just appoligized to people north of town LOL. He sounded pretty down. I'm not sure if he did it on his own accord but the way it was setup it sounded like he was told to. Having to apologize for a forecast..ouch. And for those outside of the state, they still have bus drivers dropping off kids right now...imagine that..at nearly midnight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LovingGulfLows Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I wonder what Brick is thinking at the moment. RDU seems to be underperforming and he was so optimistic about this storm... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superjames1992 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 It's not going to snow outside the mountains this year, guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WxKnurd Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 It's not going to snow outside the mountains this year, guys. You know there will be a quailifying statement to try and get him out of the hole he dug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowinnc Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 According to our local news they are saying it will stop in North Raleigh in the next hour but looking at the radar it seems like it will keep going for a couple more hours. Should this be wrapping up in RDU in the next hour? If so bummer to get only five hours of snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLweather Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 LMA needs a timeout or extended vacation. 55 post in 4 years don't even know he exist till a "busted" snowstorm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winterhawk Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Ventured out into our Northern Winter Wonderland. Roads are absolutely skating rinks; it really was amazing.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I think I had 13: 1 ratios today! It took 13 of the flakes I got today to equal 1 normal size flake Lmao this made me laugh so hard, I don't know why Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
btownheel Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 very pretty right now. Just took a walk. Not much snow, but turned everything white and quiet as a mouse. Love it. Now to see how freaking cold it can get tomorrow night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunkman Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Anyone know offhand what the NWS forecast was for the Raleigh area? Seems like people are screaming bust with totals that I thought were in the range they were expecting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCsandhills Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 about 2" in Fayetteville. still very light, dandruff like snow. what a horrible bust. i was legitimately expecting at least 6" of snow. i am looking forward to reading some write ups about why the models did so poorly on this storm in my area. what kept the sleet going for so long? it did not start until about 4, then the sleet went until 9:45 PM. not to mention it was well below freezing for awhile - was sleeting at 21 degrees. once it did start snowing, we got no heavy bands at all. even during the event, most mets were saying just be patient. just curious about what went so wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrasher Fan Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I'm embarrassed to call Atlanta home this week. What a colossal lack of planning, communication, judgement and action by city and state officials. Heads will surely roll for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaculaWeather Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 In this case, they should have issued advisories and warnings, yes. I didn't see a warning for my county until after I already had 1.5" of snow on the ground. Really. You know what, it's not the NWS's fault. It's the fault of businesses and school systems not heeding their watches and warnings. I don't know who school systems consult regarding the weather, but had they asked any of us, we would have told them to either early release or not go at all. We knew the night before and they could have made that decision then when parents had a chance to plan and keep kids home. This didn't have to happen at all. And what would have happened had this been an ice storm, or a foot of snow? It's going to happen again.. As far as the schools, the safety of the students and staff is the most important responsibility they have, and they failed that duty. Ryan Maue said that in Florida when a tropical storm approaches, the National Guard is activated, the Red Cross, and FEMA. No such plan here, even though we know what happens every time we have a winter storm. This emergency is no different than that. The effects are widespread and crippling. This is also a total failure of government agencies to help us out when it's needed. People are going to have to take responsibility for their own actions/inactions and not rely on the government to help. I left early yesterday, I was even going to take sick/vacation/personal to do it. I knew what was happening and realized they weren't going to let us go, so I took the matter into my own hands. It's up to us... we're the ones that know what's going on. We have to keep people informed. Obviously the media does a very poor job getting the "real" information out. I use Facebook, Twitter, my website, a blog... everything I can use when things get bad. I got the word out and those people were prepared. Atlanta metro has to come up with a snow storm disaster plan to avoid this in the future. Staggered business releases, conservative school closings, early activation of National Guard units that have snow/ice capabilities, and activation of warming stations and safe houses. There needs to be a central command center that can manage all emergency communications and coordinate GDOT as well as county road crews. This is as crippling for us as a hurricane is for Florida. Not as devastating property wise, but just as crippling to the transportation infrastructure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherokeeGA Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I'm embarrassed to call Atlanta home this week. What a colossal lack of planning, communication, judgement and action by city and state officials. Heads will surely roll for this. It's definitely going to be an interesting few weeks coming up. Traffic is one thing, we have tolerated horrible traffic jams here for a long time now. But the kids and the stranded buses and sleeping at school part has pushed people a bit too far, I suspect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmagan Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I'm embarrassed to call Atlanta home this week. What a colossal lack of planning, communication, judgement and action by city and state officials. Heads will surely roll for this. Some political careers might come to an end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherokeeGA Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 It's the fault of businesses and school systems not heeding their watches and warnings. I don't know who school systems consult regarding the weather, but had they asked any of us, we would have told them to either early release or not go at all. I think that for my county, that was the thing - we weren't under a warning, so it's not like they were ignoring a warning and opening school for the day despite one. There are interesting comments in the Atlanta thread about how NWS has simple accumulation measurement cutoffs for determining when a warning goes out, and whether perhaps the decision should be taken with rather more consideration than that (i.e. factors such as temp combined with precip totals - as someone put it, and I paraphrase, 1" of wet slush at 33 degrees has a lot different impact to roads than 1" of dry powder at 20 degrees after weeks of fairly frequent below freezing lows). That's a useful conversation and I hope it goes places with the people that matter and participate in making those decisions. Maybe we'll get improvements to the warning system from it. For better or worse, the school systems do not check forums like this one for a forecast. They just go by the official warning system and briefings with the NWS and government agencies. You and I both know that some very smart people here felt there was high potential that this was going to be "significantly more" in N.Ga., but officially it wasn't forecast to be "significantly more" way up here. It doesn't excuse anything that happened south of here - the metro area counties WERE under a warning, and they were warned some 8 hours ahead of time. I don't know why they opened their schools. I don't know why employers ignored it until lunchtime. What has happened at the north perimeter and below is terrible. There were multiple levels of questionable decision-making amongst all those folks responsible for the schools and businesses and roads and public welfare down there. It will no doubt be discussed for weeks if not months. Hopefully, ultimately, something good will come from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckeyefan1 Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 Copied from the storm thread Special thanks to the Red Taggers and SE Crew(you know who you are) that filled this thread with the best knowledge available. Also to our Super Secret Black Ops Ninja's.....Seanus, Jeremy, John......You all ROCK!! I know I appreciate everything you all do and that is what makes this place so special Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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