Interstate Highways Are Snow Traps

Cars stuck on a steep hill during a March, 2017 blizzard in front of
my St. Albans, Vermont house.  Luckily for the drivers, this isn't a
limited access highway like Interstate 89, so the motorists were able
to use my driveway and those of my neighbors to turn around.
They weren't stuck for hours like they would have been on the Interstate.

Here's one of those problems in which no good solutions come to mind: Snowy crashes on Interstate highways that trap motorists for hours.

Under normal conditions, the United States Interstate Highway system moves people and goods efficiently from one place to another.

Along with us dweebs in cars and small trucks, zillions of tractor trailers zip back and forth delivery goods and supplies to zillions of places and people.

Until it snows.

There's no good mechanism for getting people moving again when tractor trailers jack knife on ice, or cars slide off the highways and into ditches or other cars.

Such was the case last evening, when a snow squall froze a previously just wet section of Interstate 89 between Burlington and Montpelier. The Interstate was basically a parking lot from mid afternoon into the evening because of this mess, reports WCAX-TV.  The traffic jam continued hours after the snow squall had ended, demonstrating how hard it is to untangle an Interstate highway crash.

Elsewhere yesterday, parts of Interstate 80 in Nebraska, Interstate 35 near Kansas City and Interstate 70 southeast of Manhattan, Kansas were closed due to a snowstorm Sunday, the Weather Channel reported.

More closures are possible as the storm heads northeast into the Ohio Valley and eventually southern New England.

Snow squalls are the worst, because they cause rapid changes in road conditons and sudden white out conditions.  That's still a threat here in Vermont Wednesday, which would make it the third time in a week that heavy snow squalls either shut down parts of Vermont highways or threatened to.  Wednesday's snow squalls here in Vermont might be the worst of the bunch. (There were problems with snow squalls last Thursday and again yesterday.)

The limited access of Interstate highways that make them safer with no cars merging from side streets.  But the only way to get cars trapped behind snowy wrecks, or any kind of wreck is to wait until the mess is cleaned up so people can progress to the next exit at least.

Sometimes, people are directed into those little patches of asphalt connecting opposite lanes of highways where cops wait for speeders. Then the motorists can go basically U-turn back toward their starting point but that takes a long time to accomplish too.

Police and first responders must give priorty to getting the injured to hospitals, investigating the cause of the crash, and getting things cleared in a safe manner that doesn't cause more injuries.  Plus, they often don't have the manpower to figure out a way to move all the stuck traffic behind the wrecks.

That's why people are often stuck for hours behind Interstate crashes. They're not the highest priority, I'm afraid.

My advice, and it isn't perfect:  Make sure you have a full tank of gas, especially in the winter, before you venture out.  If they say snow squalls are on the way or are already here, stay home.  Try to listen or hunt for traffic alerts so you can avoid gummed up areas.

As we enter a winter full of ice storms, snowstorms and snow squalls, you, too might be stuck on the Interstate for a long time.  They only way to manage it is to be prepared.

Another Round Of Vefmont Storms. Boaters Off The Lakes This Time, Please

A severe thunderstorm approaches St. Albans Bay
on Lake Champlain in July, 2013. If the sky looks like
this, you should have gotten off the lake well before now. 

More thunderstorms are likely this afternoon and evening in Vermont, and most of the rest of the Northeast for that matter.

The zone that's got the highest chance of severe weather is amid the torrid heat wave in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Washington DC area.

But up here in Vermont and the rest of the North Country, quite a few of the storms might be strong, and a couple might turn severe.

Let's not have a repeat of the chaos we had Saturday, when many boaters were caught out on lakes and got into trouble

. Lake Champlain was a mess, as the Coast Guard and other public safety agencies were swamped with distress calls from boaters caught in the storm.

Down in Rutland County, a number of boaters got caught out on Lake Bomoseen.

As of early this morning, about 1,700 homes and buildings in Vermont still had no electricity from Saturday's storms.

There's a couple neat videos of Saturday's storms at the bottom of this post.

Today's storms could come through any given area anytime, though chances are slight this morning.

Things will ramp up in the early afternoon, with the highest chances of storms in eastern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire between about 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The storms will be moving west to east, so New York will probably see the rough weather earliest.

As is usually the case, only a few towns will get hit by severe weather. I don't think today's storms will cause as widespread an issue as Saturday, but then again you never know. Keep an eye to the sky again, please.

For boaters and anyone planning on being outside today, remember these tips so we don't have another mess like Saturday.

--- You know already first thing this morning there's a possibility of storms today. Why not call off your excursion until, say, tomorrow  when it's supposed to be a pleasantly warm and sunny summer day, free of storms?

--- If you insist on go out, remember, you probably have less time than you think to get out of the way of the storms. Be ready to get to a safe harbor and/or a safe building quickly.

----I think people were surprised Saturday by the speed and the direction by which the storms approached.  The storms' forward speed was 50 mph, which is awfully fast, and they came down from the north.

We're used to storms coming from the west, as that is the most frequent direction from which these things come. But they can come from any direction, and even if the are coming from the west, like I think they will today, new storm cells can pop up unexpectedly nearby and surprise you.

If you see a storm off to the north, or south, or east, don't think you're safe. The storm might not miss after all.

--- Always listen to the National Weather Service, via a weather radio, smart phone app or anything else you can get your hands on. Listen to the details of these warnings or weather statements They'll tell you from what direction the stuff is coming, when it will get to you, and what to expect.

But remember, results may vary. The storms highlighted by the National Weather Service could weaken, strengthen or change direction.

---- Avoid complacency. You're saying, "Oh, right. We've had three severe thunderstorm warnings in the past month at my house and nothing bad happend." But bad things happened maybe two miles from your house.

Severe storms are weird. There will be pockets of damage, and a  mile down the road, everything's fine.   The next bad storm could hit you, and hit you hard. You never know.

Here's a time lapse of the storm coming in Saturday along the Lake Champlain shore in Georgia, Vermont:



Here's a video of quarter-sized  hail in Shelburne, Vermont Saturday: