Just when you think “they’re not forecasting another one,” the weather gods or whomever is in charge of the weather get together and say “Oh, yeah, well here it comes!” That’s the way it’s been all over the country this winter with areas experiencing record amounts of snowfalls and other places that are normally warm that have been turned into “crash-em” car arenas by icy rainfalls and snow.

Normal Advice

The normal advice in this would be to slow down and leave extra room between your car and the car ahead. That’s the advice that has been advocated here, but when you start to get storm after storm (one every other day, it seems), that advice pales into the background as you look at the corners of almost every street.

There, at the corner, a pile of snow is growing and growing as snow plows try to keep ahead of the storms and the frequency of the storms doesn’t given the local department of public works time enough to cut back on snow piles or cut them down to size. The result is a horror show at the corner.

Examples Galore

For example, there was is one corner where the snow is piled up to about six feet and that poses a problem because you just cannot see cars coming at you at the corner. Instead, you have to find a sightline further back from the snow pile where you can view oncoming cars and slow your rate of travel until you see very few, if any cars coming.

Believe it or not, though, you’re not done then because, though there is a slightly smaller, snow pile to the right, you have to look right as far as you can and inch out which brings you to almost the center of the roadway.

This is a dangerous situation that all town departments of public works are trying to fix, but we haven’t had a snow season in New England like this for at least the last 15 years when 106 inches of snow fell in Boston, a record.

And, there were records up and down the coast that year.

The Problem Explained

Some people believe if you know about the problem you will find some solace, but every driver who has discussed this really doesn’t care why it’s happening, they just wish it would go away.

So, what is the problem, we’ve all heard of El Nino winters, those winters where the snow is light and the temperatures are relatively mild. Well, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this year is called a La Nina year. What’s the difference between them?

In an El Nino winter, the subtropical jets and standard jet stream are moved farther north than normal and where the country normally has snow there is either rain or warmer-than-normal weather and drought.

In a La Nina winter, the reverse is true. The jets – there are actually two a subtropical and a northern – tend to move position, too. The northern jet tends to move down, bringing with it air that is normally trapped over northern Canada and that air moves much further south, sometimes as far as the Gulf coast. It’s usually when we hear of catastrophic ice storms, huge accidents and blackouts that affect hundreds of thousands.

On the coast and in the northern part of the country, the southern jet tends to come further north and bring with it warmer-than-normal amounts of “juicy air” that storms can feed on and the result is “bombogensis,” or the explosion of a storm into a massive Atlantic storm that buries the East Coast in feet, not just inches of snow and they seem to keep on coming.

Just Over A Month

With the official winter season just over a month old, Boston has had more than 50 inches of snow, and other cities on the East Coast have had the same. Whether this will be another record winter in Boston or other East Coast cities will await the verdict of spring. Until then, it is up to when nature shuts it off. Is there anything you can do about it?

• Slow Down and Anticipate: Remember the egg-under-the-pedal experiment and drive as if there were an egg there and your job is to make sure it arrives at its destination without a crack. This means slowing down and trying your best to anticipate what is going on at all times.
• Keep Your Eyes Moving: Although this sounds like work – it can be at first – once you have done it a couple of times, it becomes second nature and you are constantly aware of the cars around you. Yes, there are blindspots on all cars, although some of the newest cars have blindspot eliminators that tell you cars are moving into the blindspot of your car, but not every car has one yet, so you have keep your eyes on the road ahead; watch your rearview mirror and keep and eye on your sideviews. Try turning them as far out to the side as you can so you can have the fullest view of the road to the side of your car.
• At a Snow-Pile-Filled Intersection Anticipate: Slow down well before the intersection and try to find a sight line that gives you a full view of the road ahead to either side and watch for traffic. If the street is clear speed up a bit and then edge out as quickly as you dare and make your turn. Chances are good you will be okay.
• It Pays To Yield: There are far too many headstones in far too many cemeteries that could have the words “but I had the right of way” written on them as an epitaph. This is because there’s a certain lack of caring about anyone but oneself amongst the driving population as a whole. Case in point: An intersection this week where I driver in a minivan just ran the stop sight smiling and waving. It’s not that there was a car turning left or another car trying to turn right, as well as another vehicle coming into the four-way from the left trying to go straight. The idiot driver of the minivan kept on driving ahead at speeds far too high for the conditions. However, this is an irony, the intersection where the minivan turned was into a strip mall that contains, among other things, a pizza shop and a pet store. Who knows, maybe the driver’s puppy needed a new ball? If cars had been driving just a little more quickly, the person who ran the stop sign (remember that STOP SIGN, not an invitation that says You can go but everyone else has to wait!!) would have cause a horrific accident and would likely have blamed everyone else but herself.

These are a few ideas in how to cope with this winter. And to think, there are only two more months left, what a thought!!!