My Most Severe Winter Weather Experience
Posted: Tuesday, November 01, 2011
by Dianne Lehmann
Artisan Jewelry from SyZyGy
Living in Arizona, a lot of people suppose that we don't have any kind of winter to speak of. They are often thinking that the weather in Phoenix is what goes on in the entire state. The people who live in Flagstaff would laugh at them. Once the snow settles in, it's there for the winter and it often stays on top of the San Francisco Peaks just north of Flagstaff until July. Altitude has more to do with it than latitude.
I do remember one very bad storm. It happened at the tail end of winter. My father-in-law and step-mother-in-law had come for a visit and ended up staying a little longer than they had planned. Bernd, my husband, and I hadn't lived here all that long yet, about six years, I am guessing. I was still driving the 1979 Mustang, V8, 302cc, rear-wheel drive car that we had bought new. It was about 20 years old at the time but still running well … enough. The only problem was that it was overpowered for its weight and the gas tank wasn't all that huge so even if I kept if full all winter, it didn't put that much weight over the drive wheels. So I kept several large bags of non-clumping kitty litter in the trunk all winter. It also occasionally came in handy if I need to create a little more traction.
I was working as the night manager at the Wendy's in town and my shift started at 3:30 p.m. Because town is higher than where I live, it meant that I had several hills to climb in getting there. One of them is named Bullwhacker Hill because the old-timey drivers would have to whack the heck out of their oxen in order to get them to pull anything up it. Bullwhacker Hill gets the worst of the weather. But my problem occurred below the Hill.
I'd called before I left home because I was concerned that maybe the store manager would decide to close up the restaurant and send everyone home before sunset. I'd been told to come in. Normally, the drive would take me about 20-25 minutes. I left an hour before I had to be there.
It was going fairly well. I had my windshield wipers on full speed. I had a full tank of gas. I had my kitty litter in the trunk. I had my game face on.
I was keeping my speed to a respectable 20-25 miles per hour even though it was nearly a complete whiteout, when I thought I could hear a siren. The roads had been plowed at some point, but the snow had accumulated on them again. But the plowing had put huge piles of snow in the median. There are culverts (really large and deep culverts) on either side of the two-lanes-each-way highway that were filled with snow. I was thinking that if that really were a siren, I had nowhere to go. I was in the outside lane … the slow lane … and I knew very well how deep that culvert was at that point. I rolled my window down a bit to hear better and decided that yes, it was a siren and it was coming at me from the opposite direction.
I had no one ahead of me, but there were several cars behind me. I decided to slow down even more and took my foot off of the gas. The fool (I'll call the driver that after the fact because at the time it probably seemed reasonably to "him") behind me did not slow down, had probably not heard the siren and decided to change lanes and pass me on the left. All well and good, except that there had obviously been some kind of impediment to the ambulance (as it turned out) because it was coming at me in the lane the driver had just moved into to. "He" panicked and without looking, started to pull over right into the side of my car. I did not stomp on the brakes, but I did apply them with a little more excitement than I should have and very nearly went right off the road and into the culvert when one rear wheel found a little more traction than the other.
I wound up facing into the ditch with my car broadside to the traffic. They always tell you to steer into the skid, but you never really get to practice that sort of thing. Somehow, I did it correctly. The driver who caused the problem drove on and those following him drove slowly around me. I waited until it seemed clear and slowly worked myself back onto the road. To say my nerves were shot would be an understatement. I don't think I had nerves anymore. My hands were buzzing and I could barely think. I heard someone panting and realized it was me.
When I got to the base of Bullwhacker Hill, I started a litany of "Please don't let me have to stop. Please just let me get to the top. Please don't let me have to stop." Of course then there was dealing with the downgrade, which thankfully is not as bad as the up. By the time I got to work, I was done in … absolutely and completely. Then the boss told me that he had decided to close up and that we should all go home. I stayed for a few more minutes, collected my wits and went out and got back into my car.
The snow I had compressed pulling into the parking space had already frozen solid behind my rear wheels. When I tried to back out, I got no traction. So I got back out of my car, opened the trunk, opened a bag of kitty litter and used the coffee can to spread it as close under my wheels as I could and for a couple of feet behind. I was then able to back out and headed home. Oh yes, I went out next chance I got and bought some chains to fit my tires. Up until that snowstorm, which lasted for several days, I hadn't really needed them.
I made it almost all the way home without incident. I was in our housing complex and had about a mile to go. I was going up the steepest hill I'd have to negotiate and once more saying "Please don't let me have to stop" over and over, when a car backed out of a driveway ahead of me. I thought to myself, "You fool. You absolute fool. What could possibly be so important that you have to go out in this?" Never mind that I was out in it. I applied my brakes slowly and carefully and prayed that my car would stick to the road. Fat chance.
Our roads are always some of the last they plow and conditions were so bad that it was days before they got around to it. So, it was dark, the road was frozen and I was sliding backwards down the hill. If it had been a straight shot, I might not have been so panicked. But it took a pretty tight curve with a culvert along the side (no storm drains around here, just these big ditches to channel rain run-off). I actually managed to steer my way down to the level part and stayed on the road. But once more, I couldn't get any traction.
I did not want to get out and use the kitty litter again. It was snowing even harder at that time, if that could be believed, and visibility was down to a couple of feet. I wasn't sure anyone would see me in time enough to keep from hitting me. So I rocked the car back and forth until the tires bit and headed out. I took that hill faster than was sane, but I just wanted to get to the top. And I did. I had a couple more very small hills to climb before reaching home, but no other cars were out to give me trouble.
I was so darn happy to pull into the garage. You have no idea. It was a couple of hours before I could stop shaking and it wasn't just from the cold. Bernd and his parents had been very worried about me. I'd called them from work to let them know Wendy's was closed about an hour and a half before I got home. Bernd was sure I was dead. I felt half way there.
The next morning, when it got light enough to see anything, we all looked outside. My father-in-law's car, which was parked in our driveway, was so buried in snow that you couldn't see it at all. Because it was parked next to a juniper hedge and the snow was piled so high on the hedge, the car just looked like part of the hedge. It was days before we could dig it out. And besides, they couldn't leave until our roads were plowed.
We haven't had a storm as bad as that one since then. While I like the snow and all sorts of weather in general (having grown up in southern California where there isn't any weather to speak of, only climate), I count myself lucky for that. Not too long after that storm we bought a 4-wheel drive Jeep Cherokee Laredo for me to drive. I still have it and am very grateful for it even though I haven't needed it as badly as I could have used it that day.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Nice one. It can be tough, especially in a Mustang. I'll start giving more points for the first to submit in the topic. Thanks for being in our group.Hi Jack.
Hey, no pressure, right? :)
When I first read your assignment, I thought to myself that I wouldn't have anything to write about, but then I remembered ... I think I had been trying to forget that day. What a nightmare! I don't know how the people who live where it snows like that a lot manage it. And yes, the Jeep is much better for such weather. :)
Thanks and hugs,
Dianne
hi diane,
i envy the way you handled that car and got it home. i hate the snow on the roads, and am terrified of it, although we now have a cherokee jeep as well. loss of control is a panic button for me.
I'm glad you got home safely,
my best to you,
sueHi Sue.
I wasn't nearly as calm as the telling of it might make it seem. And I was very glad to get home safely too.
Just last winter, we had a fairly severe storm, though nothing like the one I wrote about. Bernd and I had to go out for some reason that I no longer remember. I hope it was a good one because at one point in the drive, I had to stop at a traffic signal that was a bit downhill after coming around a turn. I was working the brake pedal and doing my best not to entirely loose traction when I did, none the less. We came to rest quite gently against the bumper of the pickup truck in front of us. No damage to the truck and a very slight dimple in my front bumper resulted. The whole time I was trying not to hit the car in front of me, Bernd is sitting in the passenger seat with both his feet pressed into the firewall and yelling at me to stop ... over and over. I would have laughed if it hadn't upset me so much.
When we came to rest, I looked over at him and said, "Just what do you think I was trying to do?" I said it very calmly which amazed the heck out of me. So even a 4-wheel drive Jeep isn't proof against mishap. Ooh, that probably doesn't help you at all does it. :) Caution and forethought are your best defense.
Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting!
Hugs,
Dianne
Great article for me, particularly as I am two thirds through writing a trilogy about a bunch of people out of Phoenix Arizona. Must be a vey different climate there, its 90 degree's F in November!Hi Terrence.
Well, the high in Phoenix yesterday was officially 88 degrees. Today it is supposed to be about 78. We're heading for a cold snap.
This morning when I got up, it was 31 (that was at 6:00 a.m.), but right now (1:24) it is 57. Not supposed to get much warmer than that. By the weekend we are expected to get some snow.
When Bernd and I go to Phoenix, which isn't all that often, it's like traveling to a different season. There is a regional horse show final in Scottsdale (northern metro Phoenix area) at Westworld over the weekend. I'm thinking about going. While we are already having some winter type weather up here, down there it will be like spring again.
Egad! I can talk forever about where I live!
Thanks for reading.
Hugs,
Dianne
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