SounderChick Posted January 1, 2020 Posted January 1, 2020 (edited) We had high winds last night causing a buildup of tumbleweeds across a highway 20-30 feet deep. They had to close the highway and my DH work had to go to essential personal only. What's the weirdest weather closures you've had? Edited January 1, 2020 by rebcoola 8 Quote
Pintosrock Posted January 1, 2020 Posted January 1, 2020 Not weather, but road closure. A truckload of olives overturned on the highway. They never could clean it up and ended up having to repave the highway! 1 7 Quote
SounderChick Posted January 1, 2020 Author Posted January 1, 2020 This is a car they found this morning. The road was closed for 10 hrs. 4 Quote
Jaybee Posted January 1, 2020 Posted January 1, 2020 Wow. That's some serious tumbleweed takeover! 1 Quote
May Posted January 1, 2020 Posted January 1, 2020 (edited) When I was teaching at a school in Memphis, TN, all area schools announced a closing for the next day. They were anticipating a snowfall of 1-3 inches. The next day was a balmy 40😊 Edited January 1, 2020 by May Clarification 3 Quote
fairfarmhand Posted January 2, 2020 Posted January 2, 2020 7 hours ago, May said: When I was teaching at a school in Memphis, TN, all area schools announced a closing for the next day. They were anticipating a snowfall of 1-3 inches. The next day was a balmy 40😊 That is classic Tennessee winter weather right there! Quote
gardenmom5 Posted January 2, 2020 Posted January 2, 2020 7 hours ago, May said: When I was teaching at a school in Memphis, TN, all area schools announced a closing for the next day. They were anticipating a snowfall of 1-3 inches. The next day was a balmy 40😊 they did that here one dec (I think it was 2008). the weatherman forecast a major storm, so they cancelled school. nothin'. zip. nadda. It hit during the night - they announced they'd just close school for the rest of the week as the following week started winter break. We ended up with 24" at our house (with 1/4- 1/2" layer of ice in there somewhere.). Last time I remember a storm that dumped that much (well, this was four storms in under a week) - was 1968. 1 Quote
Ausmumof3 Posted January 2, 2020 Posted January 2, 2020 Wow that’s weird we’ve only had dust and fires and floods I think i did have to sit at a roadblock in the hills once while they ran down some drug runners with a helicopter. Quote
Carrie12345 Posted January 2, 2020 Posted January 2, 2020 That’s a pretty off the wall weather closure! I’ve got nothing to beat that. We did have a flood closure on a main road a few months back. Not weird, but it did anger me. It “just so happened” to be where they’ve chopped tons and tons of mature trees for a road widening project. I am by no means an engineer, but I’ve had doubts about their storm management “solutions” the entire time. I’ve scratched my car a whole bunch because our neighborhood roads are lined with birch trees. When we get ice, they all bend over the roads. It’s like slalom driving, and sometimes you hit the gates! There was once a camel walking down the highway in a snow storm, but it didn’t close the road, lol. 1 2 Quote
Lady Florida. Posted January 2, 2020 Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) I saw a video and also saw that they're calling it tumblegeddon. That's pretty weird and hard to top. We do at times get road closures due to sinkholes, which can be a major issue inland. We don't get them here on the east coast but where they happen, they've been known to swallow cars, houses, businesses, and sadly, even people. The most famous one in recent history happened in the early 80s just outside of Orlando. Sinkholes often fill with water and eventually become "lakes". While the Winter Park sinkhole has a name now, for years it was simply known as The Sinkhole. Businesses would even advertise "Come to blah blah business, next to the sinkhole in Winter Park." Everyone knew where that was. You didn't need an address. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Park,_Florida#sinkhole When I was in college in Tallahassee there were places we used to go swimming that were just sinkholes that filled up with water. They were called The Sinks. Edited January 2, 2020 by Lady Florida. 1 Quote
gardenmom5 Posted January 2, 2020 Posted January 2, 2020 This came up about the reports on the tumbleweeds. They're not native to North America. They arrived in 1873 when Russian immigrants brought seed contaminated with Russian Thistle. link 1 1 Quote
gardenmom5 Posted January 2, 2020 Posted January 2, 2020 we did have one winter - I5 was flooded/closed at Centralia (between seattle and Portland). I90 and HW2 (major routes over the cascade mts.) were both closed by avalanches. all at the same time.. Seattle/PS-area was essentially shut off by road, unless you went really far out of your way. (or flew) Quote
plansrme Posted January 3, 2020 Posted January 3, 2020 We just returned from Wyoming and had a four-hour (in good weather) drive from the ski area to Salt Lake. Snow was expected, so I was following WYDOT (Wyoming DOT) online to see their weather advisories, and they were amazing. Several roads were under advisory due to extreme risk of "blow over," so tall, light vehicles were advised to use caution. Now, if the winds were that strong in Atlanta, where I live, we would put Georgia is closed" signs on all of the interstates and cancel schools. But Wyoming just says, "Y'all go right ahead; knock yourselves out." And the road from our ski area to SLC was HORRIBLE--blowing snow obscured the road for miles, there was ice, tons of snow, and our route had zero advisories. So, I'm thinking the wind on those roads with the blow over risk must be something special. Quote
Katy Posted January 3, 2020 Posted January 3, 2020 Wow, that's interesting. I've never seen anything weird like that personally. My mom has a picture of a freak snowstorm in 1972 where the drifts were up to the roof of my grandparent's Midwestern house. I want to say it was in May, but I'm not sure. Quote
linders Posted January 4, 2020 Posted January 4, 2020 Aww, I used to live in the TC!! I remember playing "dodge 'em tumbleweeds" on the way out to the site. 1 Quote
J-rap Posted January 4, 2020 Posted January 4, 2020 How surreal! Wow, that photo!! Ours is probably not so unusual, but schools and businesses in our town all had to close for several days once when all the drinking water became contaminated due to flooding. Businesses and schools finally opened, but there were still black garbage bags covering all the facets and water fountains so people wouldn't use them. But by then they had enough bottled water for everyone I guess. Quote
SounderChick Posted January 4, 2020 Author Posted January 4, 2020 The crazy thing could be that has not happened before high winds are not exactly uncommon here We are protected but some people on the edge of town had to "dig"out of there houses Yay for invasive species that thrive Quote
Chris in VA Posted January 4, 2020 Posted January 4, 2020 That's crazy! Mine is just funny. I moved from Ohio to Ft Lauderdale area in 11th grade. We had laughed about no more school closings for snow. The first week, they closed school becauae the air conditioning broke! There were few windows because it was totally air conditioned, so we would've roasted. 1 Quote
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