Mayhem on the Ohio Turnpike

I'm home, off the road during todays bad weather.  Via the free website https://www.broadcastify.com/, I am listening to local police/fire scanner chatter.  

As shown on the map below, reports are of a 30+ car pile-up Eastbound and another 30+ car pile-up Westbound on the Ohio Turnpike within a few miles of each other.  

Crazy things I have heard is they are trying to get 4 school busses to the scene to use as warming shelters in this -2F weather.  This is all small town rural area and they are trying to pull resources from anywhere!  

Let's be honest.   The entire midwest highway system is berkeleyed.

Wow, a cluster bleep in Canuck-land!

John Welsh said:

Wow, a cluster bleep in Canuck-land!

The 401 is the busiest highway in Canada. Before I moved from the London area 23 years ago the convergence point of the 401 and 402 at London saw 10-11,000 semitrailers a day. When something goes wrong it creates huge backlogs. I can only imagine what visibility is like today between Windsor and London. It will be packed into black ice , too.

Other info I'm getting off FB and Lake Erie Boater sites...  

The Great Lakes don't have tides but there is an interesting phenomena of sustained winds.  We've had 24 hours of 40-60 kt winds from the southwest.  When sustained winds happen its just like someone has tilted the wash tub and all the water sloshes to one side.  So, with winds coming from SW, the water then moves to the NE side of Lake Erie.  

These pictures from Gibraltar Michigan, the West shore of Lake Erie:

Simultaneously, these pictures are coming out of Canada, north of Buffalo, NY (the other side of Lake Erie)

Before:

Current:

This picture taken from a Canadian Yacht Club parking lot:

Webcam pics from The Village of Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island, Western Lake Erie

Same place, in the summer:

My brother bailed out of driving from Toledo to Avon Lake for Christmas at my sister's house.  She is right on Lake Erie, I wonder where the water line is right now. Usually they have a 30ft drop to the lake from the bluff they are on.

And here I am in St Pete with the temp at 61F today... lol

It was 50+* today up here in NH. Work was essential only as the Atlantic was to have a 13'6" storm surge which is over our piers. Wind was berkeleying blowing though. Hurricane strength.

Accident video from the blue bird of gossip...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1606371488633847827

John Welsh said:

Other info I'm getting off FB and Lake Erie Boater sites...  

The Great Lakes don't have tides but there is an interesting phenomena of sustained winds.  We've had 24 hours of 40-60 kt winds from the southwest.  When sustained winds happen its just like someone has tilted the wash tub and all the water sloshes to one side.  So, with winds coming from SW, the water then moves to the NE side of Lake Erie.  

These pictures from Gibraltar Michigan, the West shore of Lake Erie:

Simultaneously, these pictures are coming out of Canada, north of Buffalo, NY (the other side of Lake Erie)

Before:

Current:

This picture taken from a Canadian Yacht Club parking lot:

According to the news just now, the water level of Lake Erie at Toledo is 84" below low water datum.  That would be a record.

If I could get over 40mph I would be very upset.

I know this isn't from the correct region but someone forwarded this photo to me of I-90 near Pierre, SD. Maybe this will be you by tomorrow.

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

The wind is still blowing hard.  It's probably 50F in my bedroom and the furnace hasn't shut off all night.

I HOPE we don't get much snowfall.  It's supposed to be in the 50s next week, lots of snow would lead to Elbonia-grade mud.

This is hard for me to compute.  Normally we don't get snow when it is cold.  30-35F?  That is when the stuff comes down hard and fast.  Near zero?  Air's too dry to pick water up off the lake so it's just clear and cold.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

The Cleveland Browns play New Orleans Saints at Lakefront Stadium 1:00pm today. At kickoff temps will be +9 degrees F but the 30 mph gusts means wind chills of -20F

The main story today about the storm on the CBC website is headlined like this: What to expect from the storm in Toronto on Saturday: Strong winds, blowing snow, slightly better conditions. When you've got strong winds and blowing snow and you find yourself saying, "Oh, that's better!" it means something.

Meanwhile, my heart goes out to people stuck in airports, whether they work there or are just trying to be somewhere else.

John Welsh said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

The Cleveland Browns play New Orleans Saints at Lakefront Stadium 1:00pm today. At kickoff temps will be +9 degrees F but the 30 mph gusts means wind chills of -20F

Similar in Baltimore, currently 7, and windy so feels like -10. Kickoff at 1

There's ice all over any metal that reaches from outside our house to the inside. (Lock strike plates, front door lock sleeve, etc.) I haven't seen that before. Yesterday was -35f with the windchill; central Ohio houses aren't built with that in mind. 

I remember driving around Put-In-Bay a few summers ago when the water was so high that the streets were flooded. Golf carts are not very compatible with flooded roads. 

We should be past it here.  Only got maybe 4" of snow but was super cold yesterday and the day before.  Supposed to be in the 40's today, 50's the rest of the week starting tomorrow

dculberson said:

There's ice all over any metal that reaches from outside our house to the inside. (Lock strike plates, front door lock sleeve, etc.) I haven't seen that before. Yesterday was -35f with the windchill; central Ohio houses aren't built with that in mind. 

I built a house that could withstand it no problem, by hand, for $3500. It's now worth $Millions

Frenchy. 

John Welsh said:

Wow, a cluster bleep in Canuck-land!

I heard that there ws a 100 car pileup just west of where I work in Woodstock. I left there at 6:30 and took the 403 - 24 home and the traffic was light. But a half dozen times I stopped on hwy 24 because I couldn't even see the hood of my car, and I wasn't driving into the ditch. Twice I tried to stop and just slid on the ice. The 40 minute drive took me about 70 minutes

Fortunately I had my oldest silicone down the door seals on the cars Thursday night before it started raining, or else we would not have been able to get in any of the cars. Also glad that on Weekday I got the snows on the last of our vehicles, yesterday was a frigid mess. 

Steve_Jones said:

dculberson said:

There's ice all over any metal that reaches from outside our house to the inside. (Lock strike plates, front door lock sleeve, etc.) I haven't seen that before. Yesterday was -35f with the windchill; central Ohio houses aren't built with that in mind. 

I built a house that could withstand it no problem, by hand, for $3500. It's now worth $Millions

Frenchy. 

Thanks, I had Coke Zero burning in my nose after reading this while taking a sip.

Also not in the discussion area, but here in Colorado's Front Range we had the fastest temperature drop of the last 50 years, at least:
The high temperature (Wed) was 51F, around 1 p.m.
3:55 p.m.: according to records at the airport 9/10 mile from my house, it was a seasonal 42F.
~4 p.m.: the Arctic front hit.
4:15 p.m.: the temperature at the airport was 28F.
4:35 p.m.: the temperature at the airport was 10F.
6:35 p.m.,: the temperature at the airport was zero, with heavy snow.
Thursday morning's low at the airport was -16F.

Switching gears with a potential thread hijack: Faced with this kind of weather, what would fully autonomous, networked/connected, self-driving cars do? Just refuse to leave the driveway because it is 'so dangerous' ??  Drive 20 mph the whole way and at least avoid the incredibly huge chain reactions with vehicles driving into each other? Would Radar/Lidar mean the low visibility is less of an issue?

In reply to BoulderG :

Not sure about pure autonomy, but lane assist and other driver aids do not work when the roads are snowy and the sensors are covered over with slop, as I have had to explain to a few of my customers.

"So every time it snows, all sorts of warning lights are going to come on and my cruise control won't work?"  Yep.