Thanksgiving Travel Hampered

A satellite view of the massive winter storm, courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

This past week leading up to Thanksgiving, as many Americans were hitting the road or heading to the airport, a massive early-season winter storm was making its way across the country. Depending on where you were, the storm dumped snow, ice, and/or rain, making travel conditions extremely difficult. According to the report, the storm was expected to bring winter-like weather to about 2.5 million square miles of the country. 

This storm was making big news because of it occurring on a major holiday, but storms like this are actually fairly common this time of year according to Chris Kidd. The warm ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico, which are still around the 80 degree mark, load up the atmosphere with moisture, while cold air from the Arctic is blowing down from the north. Where the two very different temperatures meet you have "the perfect recipe for a large storm system"

Because of the size of the storm, it was also impacting areas that do not usually see much or any snow annually, like the Southwest and the southern portion of the Plains States. This caused several deadly car accidents in areas where drivers are just not used to, and maybe not prepared for, driving in the snow. This just goes to show that even in normally warm areas, when conditions are right, you can still see a major winter hazard. 

How could this be prevented or lessened? Perhaps people who live in these areas where you can, and do, see at least a little but of snow each year, need to realize how dangerous it is. Most people in these areas probably drive two-wheel-drive vehicles and drive on roads managed by municipalities that do not have plows or road salt. That is a recipe for disaster. I do not envision these states or counties to invest much money in snow plows because it would not be practical for the few times they would be used, so I think a lot of the changes that need to happen fall on the population. Maybe consider driving an all-wheel drive vehicle (a lot of them get comparable gas mileage now) or something that can be switched in and out of four-wheel drive. If all else fails, realize that if it snows, the roads are going to be awful. Just stay off of them. These deaths were preventable, but only if the people involved were willing to wait out the storm.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=82443