Snow in Seattle?

proby — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 05:25:26 +0000

So first off it very rarely ever snows in Seattle. It snows in the hill and mountains around Seattle, but not in Seattle. Well these past few days it has actually snowed in Seattle. Further, it has stayed on the ground. This is pure craziness. Now growing up in the great white north of Minnesota it’s in my blood to drive in snow and ice and cold. People in Seattle totally just freak out. The town shuts down. People start driving like absolute idiots. People were abandoning their cars on the side of the interstate and walking home. Commutes that take under an hour were taking multiple hours. Many many vehicles were in the ditch or in accidents. People just freaking lose it when there is snow in the vicinity. Honestly, the snow wasn’t that bad. I thought Hautian drivers were bad in the snow, Seattlites are far worse.

The worst was driving to work this morning. The surface of I-90 was dry and free of snow, yet people still insisted on driving under 40 mph! Ugh. I felt I was running a slalom course around these cars on the way to work (I was driving at the usual ~70mph).

So here are my little tips for driving in the winter

don’t accelerate quickly, it just leads to spinning your tires which won’t get you anywhere
don’t brake quickly, unless you absolutely have to, it just leads to spin outs
don’t turn quickly, it just leads to donuts
don’t accelerate or brake while turning, it just leads to multiple donuts
have good tires. High performance tires are shit in the snow, get a good all-season radial
pay attention … pretty self-explanatory, get off the cell phone, don’t be doing your makeup
if you’re scared to drive then don’t go out
take your car to a large, empty parking lot and practice, find out the limits of your car
get the fuck out of my way

I’ll update this list as I think of more things.

orion » rant

Snow in Seattle?