The Joys of White Outs

Last night I had to drive home in a white out. There's nothing more difficult than trying to drive in white out conditions. Imagine driving while it's snowing hard, the road crews either have not plowed or salted the roads yet because  it's either coming down so fast they can't keep up or else it's too cold for the salt to have any effect (salt is mixed with sand to melt ice/snow off the roads and add traction) So the ground is white, everything around you looks like a white cloud and you can't see more than five to ten feet in front of you. You can't really see where the road goes at all or what's in front of you. Driving at night is just as bad as the snow reflects your headlights' light right back at you!

The first time I encountered this, I was driving on I highway and the only way I knew I was where I belonged was by looking for the yellow or white reflectors on the sides of the road. It's scary because if you go too slow, someone may come up on you too fast or hit you, or if you go too fast you could suddenly find yourself hitting the guy in front of you. Navigating  curves in the road is hard because even if you know the road well, you can't see any landmarks to tell you where you are. A lot  accidents can be avoided if people would just turn their headlights on during a daytime white out. It's not going to help you see better, but it does help people to see you! Some drivers think it's okay to count on the headlights that come on whenever the car is running but then they have no rear lights. And being able to see them lets you know there is a car there, even before you see the body of it.

Another problem is when drivers decide to follow the tracks left by the person who drove by before them. A friend of mine was thinking she'd get home just fine by following the guy in front of her. Little did she know that he didn't pay attention at a curve in the road and went off the street and into a ditch. She saw him at the last possible moment and tried to slam on the breaks, spun and landed in the ditch next to him!

This winter is setting up to be nasty already. We've had snow almost everyday and temps that are much lower than usual, even for up here! It's usually just about freezing (32F 0C) but lately the temps ahave been right around 23F (-5C). The winds that whip the snow into white outs also make it feel about 10 degrees colder!  Time to get the video games, crafts and board games out and spend some time hibernating with the kids!