Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire We Are a Nation of Weather Wimps?????

99% of the southern drivers did just fine in the ice and snow we had earlier in the week. We had the same conditions in more rural areas away from Atlanta. The problems came when 1-2 vehicles, usually truckers, got sideways in the road and blocked everyone else. Because there were far fewer vehicles on the road here, and alternate routes were available when a blockage happened, we were able to keep most traffic moving and tow trucks could get to the stuck vehicles. In Atlanta once things stopped moving everyone was trapped. There was no way to get help to the handful of vehicles who couldn't move.

I blame local weather forecasters for 2 reasons. First of all the prediction was for a light dusting of snow starting at 4 PM. Schools and businesses made decisions based on that forecast. Local schools cancelled all after school practices, games and other activities and called off school at 1PM as a precaution. Many businesses planned on closing around noon as well. That decision was made the night before. Snow started at 10 AM here and was certainly more than a dusting. Kids were supposed to have been home hours before this started. Instead, it put all of the traffic on the roads just at the worst times.

The 2nd problem is that local weather forecasters like to use the "S" word in their forecast. It gets ratings up when mentioned. This is the 4th or 5th time snow has been mentioned in the forecast as a possibility since November. Tuesday is the first snowflake I've seen here this year. People get to a point where they don't really believe it until they see it falling.