Worst storm you ever drove in?

[Ice bowl 67]

As far as a Snowstorm, Thunderstorm, Hailstorm or tornado what was the worst storm you ever drove in?

[BringBackFergy]

Ice Bowl in da house!!

[ExiledInIllinois]

2009-10, January 2nd ish...  Drove down to Florida for Christmas.   Then up to South Carolina for New Year's,  then on to BFLo thru W.VA for an extended stay before back to Ill-Annoy.  

 

I79.  Pittsburgh to Erie.  Right into teeth of a Lake Effect snow squall band, by the grace of God made it out! 

 

Been so many others, that was worse.  Usually in the snow belts...

 

[BringBackFergy]

Can you share with us the worst storm you’ve ever experienced? That’s usually how these threads work. 

[T&C]

Hurricane Irma.... Indians at the far corner would not close so it was a 6 mile round trip. Wildest beer run I've ever been on.

[Augie]

52 minutes ago, BringBackFergy said:

Can you share with us the worst storm you’ve ever experienced? That’s usually how these threads work. 

 

I’ll play along……because I might lose sleep tonight unless I get this off my chest. This might help. 

 

I was living in Hilton Head when my uncle in Buffalo passed away. My then fiancé took care of my dogs while I drove up thru Cincinnati with my parents to pick up my sister in college. 

 

It really was a beautiful service, and the falling snow at the cemetery created that special quiet solitude. 

 

My father, in his infinite wisdom, decided to stay for dinner at some place on Maple Rd. Lovely, really. We headed back toward Cincinnati a bit before dark. Before we hit Cleveland I get the wheel. My entire nuclear family is in the car, and they are all sleeping in a dark whiteout.  I have never seen anything like this along the lake between WNY and Cleveland. I can barely see the hood ornament, much less the road. I start driving by “feel”, like when you hit those studs in the road to define lanes. I’m staying between the bumps. 

 

At this point, I just want to pull over, but I can’t tell where “over” is. We will get crushed by any truck coming from behind. All options are bad, and I am the only one awake. THEN, I feel the bottom drop out and I think we have gone into the ditch, but it’s too smooth. It was like the drop on a rollercoaster.  There was no “tire thump” on the right side of the highway I can’t see.  It was an exit ramp, and I blew thru thru the stop sign to get back onto that nightmare! My mother then woke up to see the situation, and she added some sailor talk I can’t post here. Still freaks me out to this day.

 

About an hour later my dad woke up as we were heading south from Cleveland and offered to drive.  Gee, thanks…..

Edited March 15, 2022 by Augie

[Ice bowl 67]

10 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

I’ll play along……because I might lose sleep tonight unless I get this off my chest. This might help. 

 

I was living in Hilton Head when my uncle in Buffalo passed away. My then fiancé took care of my dogs while I drove up thru Cincinnati with my parents to pick up my sister in college. 

 

It really was a beautiful service, and the falling snow at the cemetery created that special quiet solitude. 

 

My father, in his infinite wisdom, decided to stay for dinner at some place on Maple Rd. Lovely, really. We headed back toward Cincinnati a bit before dark. Before we hit Cleveland I get the wheel. My entire nuclear family is in the car, and they are all sleeping in a dark whiteout.  I have never seen anything like this along the lake between WNY and Cleveland. I can barely see the hood ornament, much less the road. I start driving by “feel”, like when you hit those studs in the road to define lanes. I’m staying between the bumps. 

 

At this point, I just want to pull over, but I can’t tell where “over” is. We will get crushed by any truck coming from behind. All options are bad, and I am the only one awake. THEN, I feel the bottom drop out and I think we have gone into the ditch, but it’s too smooth. It was like the drop ona rollercoaster.  It was an exit ramp, and I blew thru thru the stop sign to get back onto that nightmare! My mother then woke up to see the situation, and she added some sailor talk I can’t post here. Still freaks me out to this day.

 

About an hour later my dad woke up as we were heading south from Cleveland and offered to drive.  Gee, thanks…..

When was this?

[Augie]

15 minutes ago, Ice bowl 67 said:

When was this?

Early in the morning.

 

OK, maybe more specifically Jan/Feb of 1985 as a guess.

 

EDIT: more like late ‘84, not that it matters. 

Edited March 15, 2022 by Augie

[ExiledInIllinois]

4 hours ago, Augie said:

 

I’ll play along……because I might lose sleep tonight unless I get this off my chest. This might help. 

 

I was living in Hilton Head when my uncle in Buffalo passed away. My then fiancé took care of my dogs while I drove up thru Cincinnati with my parents to pick up my sister in college. 

 

It really was a beautiful service, and the falling snow at the cemetery created that special quiet solitude. 

 

My father, in his infinite wisdom, decided to stay for dinner at some place on Maple Rd. Lovely, really. We headed back toward Cincinnati a bit before dark. Before we hit Cleveland I get the wheel. My entire nuclear family is in the car, and they are all sleeping in a dark whiteout.  I have never seen anything like this along the lake between WNY and Cleveland. I can barely see the hood ornament, much less the road. I start driving by “feel”, like when you hit those studs in the road to define lanes. I’m staying between the bumps. 

 

At this point, I just want to pull over, but I can’t tell where “over” is. We will get crushed by any truck coming from behind. All options are bad, and I am the only one awake. THEN, I feel the bottom drop out and I think we have gone into the ditch, but it’s too smooth. It was like the drop on a rollercoaster.  There was no “tire thump” on the right side of the highway I can’t see.  It was an exit ramp, and I blew thru thru the stop sign to get back onto that nightmare! My mother then woke up to see the situation, and she added some sailor talk I can’t post here. Still freaks me out to this day.

 

About an hour later my dad woke up as we were heading south from Cleveland and offered to drive.  Gee, thanks…..

Uncle Augie... What's a "hood ornament?"

 

😆 🤣 

 

Boy, that'd dated you! Nothing like a good ole fashion white knuckle drive with the lives of the whole nuclear family hanging in the balance!

 

Ferguson is gonna lose (the rest of) his mind when he wakes up today.   I better tag him and his friends. Look what you've done @Ice bowl 67!!!

 

@BringBackFergy

@Beerball

@Gugny

@Mike in Horseheads

 

Please don't check the ShoutBox too... 

 

😏 

 

 

[TBBills]

Superstorm Sandy

[Gugny]

It wasn't one of those fancy storms with a catchy name, but it was a major snowstorm back about 6 years or so ago.  The storm started in the early afternoon.  Wet/heavy snow coming down at least an inch/hour.  I was at work, which was about 60 miles from home.  Plows were nowhere to be seen, which is rare, but that was my luck.

 

The northway (I-87) was covered with 6-8 inches of snow and people were making their own lanes.  I was driving a Nissan Versa Note, hugging the right side of the highway, going about 20mph most of the time.

 

All in all, it took me 2 hours and 45 minutes to go 60 miles and it was the worst, scariest driving experience I've ever been through.

[Greg S]

The worst storm I drove in wasn't much of a storm at all. It was because our area wasn't prepared for it. It happened a couple of years ago in late Oct. We were supposed to get rain but instead we got a fluke snow storm of about 4 inches. Because the roads weren't salted and the plows weren't out it caused gridlock all over the NY Metro area. I am in NJ and a normal commute for me going back and forth from home to work is 30 minutes. It took me 6 hours to get home that day.

[Johnny Hammersticks]

Mine was not driving but on a boat.  A shrimping boat.  You see, my friend Bubba had a dream to be a shrimping boat captain, and when he died I felt compelled to fulfill his dream.  People called me crazy, but I didn’t listen.   But shrimping was hard!  That is until Lieutenant Dan came down to the bayou to help.  He was a troubled man.  Anyway, the sea was angry that night my friend.  80 mph winds, 20-30’ swells, rain as hard as momma’s fryin’ pan.  I don’t know how we made it out alive, but I think Lieutenant Dan made his peace with god that night.

[Augie]

32 minutes ago, Johnny Hammersticks said:

Mine was not driving but on a boat.  A shrimping boat.  You see, my friend Bubba had a dream to be a shrimping boat captain, and when he died I felt compelled to fulfill his dream.  People called me crazy, but I didn’t listen.   But shrimping was hard!  That is until Lieutenant Dan came down to the bayou to help.  He was a troubled man.  Anyway, the sea was angry that night my friend.  80 mph winds, 20-30’ swells, rain as hard as momma’s fryin’ pan.  I don’t know how we made it out alive, but I think Lieutenant Dan made his peace with god that night.

 

You WILL be reported if you try to show us your buh-tocks. 

[Punching Bag]

Worst storm I drove in was on way back to Virginia from Buffalo.  I76/I70 interchange reported had issues so planned on taking 220 to I68. 

My wife had been tired so at Bedford we filled tank and switched drivers.  She was asleep 5 minutes on 220.

Less than 15 minutes later a storm came in which vision was so bad I barely could see a car length ahead of me.

It took my full concentration to keep eye ahead and dealing with storm which winds were very high.

Road was empty except for some cars parked on site of road so continued driving until I68 and then continued journey east.

just before Hancock storm calmed down and she woke up; evidently the rain helped her sleep.

The normally one hour segment took me three hours and my wife could see from my face I was exhausted and offered to take over again.

Radio report said I70 was backed up to Frederick MD so we cut over to WV and took back roads to main roads to home.

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

Putting your four-ways/flashers/hazards on cuts through the snow when headlight beams blast, reflect the snow back and blind you. Shut headlights off, turn on the fog/auxiliary low beams (if you got them) and put hazards on.

 

The sad part, now every schmo on the road is doing it and going 30mph once even the smallest flake flies.   /smdh...

 

That's when you hit them with the Sasquatch Lights:

 

[Bray Wyatt]

I was driving back from Fredonia (where I went to school) to Rochester to meet my friend out for his birthday.

 

My college beater car at the time was a 85 Oldsmobile cutlass supreme (big steel boat). RWD no Posi traction.

The heater in the car was stuck on a setting. Luckily it was the defrost setting, but the speed was only at the second from the bottom. So not much heat in the car, and windshield was only defrosted on the bottom half.

 

Snow was coming down pretty good, and was real windy. The 90 was bad from Fredonia to Buffalo, but once you hit the toll booths the road cleared up some. Got to the other toll booths going to Rochester and it was crappy again.

 

All of a sudden, I hit a real bad patch of the storm, white out like conditions, and then all of a sudden my car stalls and I am able to get over on the right shoulder. I thought I was going to be stranded. I sat for a few minutes and tried to restart my car, luckily it turned over and I was able to go.

 

Went slow the rest of the way but made it to the bar.

 

My friends and I were the only people out and they were shocked I even made it, as most people used the excuse it was too bad out for them to go out.

[SinceThe70s]

Have you ever seen video of cars stuck on a highway overnight in a snowstorm and thought - what a bunch of morons, that would never happen to me. Well it happened to me.

 

Had an overnight ski trip planned with a friend and we were keeping an eye on an incoming storm. It got sketchy late afternoon and just before we were going to leave they declared a state of emergency because it was turning into an ice storm in some areas. My friend convinced me that we could outflank the storm by staying east of it and if it took us twice as long to get there it would be worth it because conditions the next day would be great. He was driving and I didn't have the good sense to say no.

 

Got stuck the first time on I-684 for 15 minutes when a car spun out and blocked the road. Got stuck the second time for an hour on I-84 when traffic came to a standstill. Got to drive maybe a mile or two further before getting stuck for the night just watching the snow pile up on the hood of the car and having no idea if/when we would get moving. In the morning we made a snowman on the side of the highway. Eventually the local fire department came by and directed us to a nearby exit where we turned around and headed home.

[TheCockSportif]

March 1996.  Boston to WNY.

 

I almost moved to Silicon Valley in the winter of 1995.  Netscape had me in the final round of interviews, but I didn't get the gig.  Most people didn't get the gig.

 

So, I found myself driving to Boston, with my best friend from high school (SJCI), to Boston, for a job interview, in mid March 1996.  Weather was terrible going out, but by the time we reached Boston, it was 55oF.  After 5 hours' worth of interviews in Cambridge, MA, snow was heavy in Boston.  It took 12 hours to get back to WNY.  Roads were terrible on the Mass Pike.  Roads were terrible on the NYS Thruway.  You couldn't see ***** 10' in front of you as you drove.  It was ***** grim.  Plus I was running out of money.  Yeah, I was finishing UB that May, but here I was, on the NYS Thruway, trying not to crash my vehicle.  I was 24 at the time, and yeah I had insurance, but if the destroyed the car, then that was the end.

 

400 miles of white knuckles.  That's what the 12 hours was.

[Ice bowl 67]

2 hours ago, TheCockSportif said:

March 1996.  Boston to WNY.

 

I almost moved to Silicon Valley in the winter of 1995.  Netscape had me in the final round of interviews, but I didn't get the gig.  Most people didn't get the gig.

 

So, I found myself driving to Boston, with my best friend from high school (SJCI), to Boston, for a job interview, in mid March 1996.  Weather was terrible going out, but by the time we reached Boston, it was 55oF.  After 5 hours' worth of interviews in Cambridge, MA, snow was heavy in Boston.  It took 12 hours to get back to WNY.  Roads were terrible on the Mass Pike.  Roads were terrible on the NYS Thruway.  You couldn't see ***** 10' in front of you as you drove.  It was ***** grim.  Plus I was running out of money.  Yeah, I was finishing UB that May, but here I was, on the NYS Thruway, trying not to crash my vehicle.  I was 24 at the time, and yeah I had insurance, but if the destroyed the car, then that was the end.

 

400 miles of white knuckles.  That's what the 12 hours was.

I remember 96 being horrible up here too. We had snowballs that lasted well into May up here.