Goodbye, Snow (Pac NW)
 

Our snow in Portland is melting away fast, now that temps have risen to the mid-40s. Rain predicted every day for a week, I guess its back to the usual Portland winter, with some nice slush as a bonus.

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

A couple of thoughts about the Christmas snow spell of '08 -

- Kids got an entire week of snow days. They'll be dreaming about this for years. And the budget-pressed schools were probably glad for an excuse to shut for a few days.

- Love those snow tires. The Prius was a champ on everything - ice, packed snow, deep slushy snow. Never chained up, never needed to.

- No-one else seems to. On a visit to the local mall, I walked up and down the parking lot and counted the cars with snow tires versus the cars with chains. Result: snows 1 (mine), chains (50, then stopped counting).

- Why is Washington so much better than Oregon at keeping the highways clear? We drove to Yakima WA for XMas, the Oregon highways were a messed-up unplowed crawl with most vehicles chained-up, the Washington highways were pretty much clear and dry enough for 50 mph.

- WA state troopers aren't all bad. I got my very first-ever "warning" from a WSP trooper, for 65+ mph in a 60 mph zone with ostensibly snow/ice hazard. Yes, I thought the stop was not quite justified, but for my entire life, I've always gotten the ticket, so maybe my luck is changing.

- Hope we get some more snow this winter!

You didn't see the news about how the city basically wouldn't do anything about the streets up here. Then again the local press is touting this storm as life ending- does wonders for local businesses who were already down for this year.

Seattle proper was a disaster. No real plowing, no sanding no nothing- something about "saving the environment" or some weird tactic about "packing the snow down". Medical services and emergency vehicles can't get around. People are pissed.

Then, you have the locals - guys in 4x4's driving 20MPH under the speed limit and chains on - on dry pavement. Did wonders for the street surfaces, and I know I ran over at least 5 or so broken chains in the limited time I was out and about in my 2wd truck with no weight or extra traction. Yesterday I saw a guy in a lifted 70's Bronco, on winter treads, AND chains on all fours - being passed by old ladies in Corollas with nothing but standard tires.

All kinds of weird stupidity and strange approaches to driving around here. The only thing in common is ineptness and frankly, overreaction.

People around here are just clueless, really..... I'm leaving this town. Never has stupidity culminated so greatly but in the PNW..

Rant over.

rjp

I had to plow my street with the front of my audi- I still couldn't get the RWD cars out if I wanted to.




Some random person on the news was calling this storm the northwest's "Katrina". The fact that they even air idiots like that just reinforces my discontent with the news.

Ha! You call that snow?
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Never had a problem here...100 miles south of Portland. Fine by me. I'm much rather watch it run down the drain than have to shovel it!

Here Wisconsin is making like Portland - 50 and raining. All the snow is melting thank God. We were running out of places to put it! However, those with basement issues are probably freaking out as I can only imagine the rapid melt in addition to rain is causing problems.

That's interesting to hear about the Prius. When I was looking for a fuel efficient grocery getter I came across complaints that the Prius had computer glitch issues re: traction control. There were reports of people stranded because the Prius refused to move once on a slippery surface. My in-laws reported no such issues with theirs. Obviously, it doesn't happen to all Priuses. Gotta wonder how many are affected?

Get yourself a couple of these and you'll learn to love the snow!
Ha, ha....
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^^^That's me Christmas Day in my backyard^^^

Oddly enough, I have lived up here my whole life and have never seen snow chains (except in the army). What are they like to drive with? Do they help in snow or just ice? Can you go fast with them?

I've read a fair bit about it. Apparently in the first years, the current generation Prius's traction control software was very aggressive in preventing wheelspin, which combined with the lousy OEM tires (Goodyear Integrity, widely detested) created problems on very slippery surfaces. The computer would cut power too quickly at the first sign of wheelspin. With good tires there wasn't a problem.

Then the software appears to have been changed and reports of the problem pretty much stopped. I don't know if dealers reprogrammed the software on older Priuses, or if those cars have naturally gotten new and better tires. But my 07 has always been a champ in snow/ice, with snow tires admittedly.

I read the Prius forums and by now the complaints about snow/ice performance are the normal ones you'd expect from people who took their Prius with the OEM tires into 8" snow and wonder why the car didn't go as well as on dry road - dummies, basically. I don't see the software-related complaints now.