Cold night here in Edmonton, with the wind chill -52F. Not looking forward to going to work in the morning.
Our forecast (NH, southeast):
That looks like fun. :/
Oof. That’s physically painful.
Yeah it looks like most of the eastern US will have a dry and quite cold weekend.
Ephraim
6187
I’m starting a drive down the east coast, from Montreal to South Florid, on Friday afternoon. I’ve got stops planned at family members’ places in Maryland and South Carolina along the way, as well as a stop in Orlando. I can leave a day or two later but no earlier, due to my daughter having an exam Friday morning.
I’m driving myself crazy trying to find the best resources to plan a route accounting for the weather. What do you folks recommend? This is my first major road trip and the worst case scenario is happening with the timing of this winter storm.
Try https://www.windy.com/.
The cold front is coming through New England late Friday night around 5 pm so you should be ok before the rapid temperature drop leave early! However we are expected to have heavy rain and wind gusts near 50 mph, so if you could leave a day earlier you’d avoid that mess.
abrandt
6189
If you leave as early as possible on Friday and take a more easterly route it seems like you could make it to Maryland before things get too bad(ice looks to be the concern once you’re down there). But that is cutting it close so you’ll want to keep an eye on the storm timing and do everything you can to be prepped to go as soon as possible Friday. If you don’t make that window then you’ll likely need to wait a couple of days for things to clear.
Doesn’t really answer your question of a tool to help plan, but since you’ll be trying to beat the storm you just want to try to stay to the east, although that looks like you’d have to deal with NY traffic.
Ephraim
6190
Thanks! And you too, @MrGrumpy!
Tools to track the storm and conditions along the way are helpful of course, but I’m deeply appreciative of any advice I can get on how best to handle this potentially treacherous winter drive. I’ve driven to Maryland before to visit my sister in a DC suburb, but never in the winter and never in the face of something like this.
I agree that there seems to be a window of potential opportunity if I can get going early enough on Friday, but the more traffic builds and slows me down, or if I even stop for any real breaks, I’d likely be running into issues with rain freezing on the highways on southern New Jersey or in Maryland. As a Quebecer, I’ve got winter tires (mandatory by law here as of December 1st each year), and they’re a brand new set, but they can’t work miracles. It’s the potential for the mix or freezing rain / icy highways and high winds that is really worrying me. I trust my winter driving skills developed over 34 years of driving in Quebec, but I’m not sure I trust the people in the mid-Atlantic US States to make safe choices.
If I ended up scrubbing the Friday departure, does it seem better to wait for Sunday or is Saturday an option? I really can’t tell from the weather apps I’m checking.
I was originally planning on mostly taking I-81 but already decided the more easterly I-87 to I-95 make more sense in the face of this weather event, even if it means more big city traffic.
abrandt
6191
Assuming you’re looking at weather roughly a day behind me(I’m in Michigan), Saturday would be an awful day to go(we’re looking at blizzard conditions all day Friday here) and Sunday is probably going to still be a windy wintry drive. Now, you seem equipped to handle a wintry drive, so Sunday may be doable for you, that will kind of depend on how things shake out, though. If you do have to push until Sunday your best bet is probably going to be checking local conditions at several places along the way before you leave. New York State seems to have a decent travel conditions map with cameras along the interstate: https://511ny.org/. Hopefully they’ll at least have the ice under control by Sunday along your route.
You should be in pretty good shape on I-87 and I-95. Those are major roads that get a lot of service during any kind of winter storm. Obviously, freezing rain is an issue no matter where or when it happens, but again, if any roads will be driveable in the weather that’s expected, it’s those Interstates.
Also, it looks like it’ll be over here after Friday morning according to local forecasts (I’m in Reading, PA) and the further east you go from here it should be even less. Philadelphia area is rain only. It won’t even get cold fast enough there to freeze anything.
I’m headed to the Hampton, Virginia area on Monday. I expect good weather the whole week.
Houngan
6194
I’m a bit sparse on hard weather sites and I have a very important stake in how it’s going to effect lower Kentucky, from what I’m seeing it’s gone from improving to worsening. Ideas on snowfall 30-50 miles from the northern Tennessee border? My concern is elderly parents on a hill, on a farm, excavating for a mine . . . scratch that last bit, but their power can go out pretty easily and if so, I need to move them to another location before it all happens.
NWS station in Laramie, WY just reported a drop from 43 degrees at 1:05pm MT to 3 degrees at 1:35 pm MT.
That is crazy.
Rock8man
6196
It’s like those scenes from that Roland Emmerich movie, The Day After Tomorrow.
Dammit, someone left the door to Wyoming open again and let all the heat out. grumble
abrandt
6198
And the system won’t bomb out until tomorrow night! I don’t worry about the crazy snow amounts here(up to 2 feet by the time the lake effect snow winds down Christmas Day) but the I do worry about the wind on Friday. Losing power during this storm would be pretty awful and I doubt they’ll be able to even really start to get power restored until the worst of the storm is done.
abrandt
6199
So, it looks like I was wrong about Saturday since the storm takes such a turn to the northeast. It seems as though the weather should be clear once you get into the US(Montreal looked to be a bit snowy, at least). As long as there is no major icing on the roads along your path, it looks like you may be just fine. The worry with ice would be that it’s going to get so cold so fast that there is basically no window for salt to melt the ice. But it also looks like the big freeze will come after the rain has ended, which hopefully limits that risk.
Houngan
6200
For those in the areas that are just now getting hit, is the storm exceeding forecasts, were they dead on, or is it somewhat lesser? I have some decisions to make regarding my parents depending on severity.
Funny thing; in northern Vermont, people always shake their heads and disparage the way Quebecois drive, especially the trucks. I suspect the reality is more like your scenario, though, as Vermonters definitely should not throw stones when it comes to driving…
Ephraim
6202
I concur. The high winds along the route, with the possibility of flash freezing have led me to conclude that leaving Friday is likely to lead to an extremely stressful drive. So I’m eyeing Saturday or Sunday now. Saturday looks like it will still potentially be windy, but clear. Sunday looks overall fine.
Thank you so much for the thoughts and feedback. I’m deeply grateful for the second opinion.
Oh, and for those curious, I’ve been trying out a very simple app called Weather on the Way to help me with my decision making as well. It’s quite simple but plots routes of travel and shows you weather conditions along the way, including alerts, according to when you are hypothetically supposed to pass through an area. The free version seems to do everything I need.
Ephraim
6203
Oh, in general I find my fellow Montrealers (a specific breed of Quebecois, to be sure) to be much more aggressive than most other drivers. I agree with your neighbours! But I adapted after having also lived in Ottawa for 13 years, a very snowy city, and have additional driver training (I drove an emergency vehicle as a first responder for a few years). Everyone thinks they’re a better driver than they likely are, but I will be travelling with my wife and two children, and their safety is paramount. I will be anything but reckless! Which is why I’m going to delay my departure, in the end.
I’m also in a six month old AWD Toyota RAV4 Limited with brand new winter tires and every safety feature that Toyota makes, so I’m pretty confident in my vehicle, too. And frankly, it’s the thought of those trucks and how they’re going to be blown around by the wind, and their dubious maintenance, that’s a prime motivator for holding off on leaving until the high winds are done.
