Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Sneaux Day

I remember the first time I was ever in Louisiana, in August, driving across a bridge and seeing the sign "Bridges May Freeze in Cold Weather," thinking it was ridiculous. After all, as hot as it was in the summer, there's no way it could get that cold in the winter. Especially knowing it was never this hot in California, and we never had snow by the beach. Except in 2008, it did snow.
It's SNOWING!!
December 2008
And again in 2009.
Snow on my car the following morning
December 2009
And yet again, in 2010.
Snow on my car
February 2010
Except despite what these picture may prove, snow isn't that common in Louisiana and until this stretch it hadn't snowed since the 1980s. And we haven't had any snow since 2010. Which is why everyone was so excited when snow was predicted last Friday, and all the schools were closed.
This was my car before leaving work...over an hour later I'm not even halfway home
My car before leaving work Friday
Except it didn't actually snow. Instead there was frozen rain with freezing temperatures, and those bridges I mentioned, they did freeze. Unfortunately for me I still had work Friday morning. Knowing that all the schools were closed I had imagined that the roads would be empty. But I didn't factor in the bridges. From where my house is there's 3 ways to get into town, each involving bridges. Except Friday morning, two of those bridges were closed, which turned my normal 30 minute commute into one of 2 hours.
Frozen
Ice in the backyard, Saturday Morning
One the way home I was under the impression that was still the only bridge open, as was everyone else. Which meant I waited 2 hours trying to cross it, until hearing on the radio that they were closing that bridge to salt in hopes of being able to reopen it. But turns out there was a second bridge, the one furthest out of the way for me, still open. That meant I had to turn around and go all the way back into town to get back to it. All in all, I got home after 4 hours of driving, which means my daily commute which is normally under an hour both ways, was 6 hours long!
24 hours later this is what the interstate still looks like
The Interstate, Saturday Morning
Even Saturday morning they still hadn't managed to reopened everything, but thankfully by Sunday things seem to be back to normal. So yes, while it might not be real snow depending on where you live, we did still get our fill in Louisiana. And yes, bridges definitely do freeze in Louisiana!

EDIT: I wrote this post originally on Sunday thinking this was our one snow storm for the year. I definitely wasn't expecting to be at home today because of snow. No way was I going out in it again after last Friday's craziness. The snow and ice is supposed to stay around till tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see if we leave this house tomorrow either. But for now, here's a look into our backyard today, around 4pm.
It's starting to stick! #sneauxday

11 comments:

  1. We were talking about those signs this morning!! The ones that say "bridge may ice" LOL. That's hilarious. It has been sleeting ALL DAY here & I've never seen sleet accumulate like snow does! But that's it. Just sleet! Come on, Snow!!

    I don't remember it snowing in 2009 & 2010!! I don't know why! LOL

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    1. I actually didn't remember them both either. At least until I started looking for snow pictures. Definitely one perk of blogging since it's easy to find random stuff like this!

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  2. oh thats crazy! it hardly ever snows here either, and I'm super happy that my husband works four miles from our house....

    be safe!

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  3. I've always enjoyed those signs. I remember seeing them when we moved to Alabama from Colorado and being confused as to why slick roads were unusual.

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  4. Ugh, your Friday commute sounds hellacious. I am glad you got home safe but I would have about lost my mind if that happened! Freezing rain is so scary - I would much rather have a huge blizzard with lots of snow than an ice storm.

    We got 1.5" of snow here last night so the city is freaking out. Schools are closed and they are telling people not to drive but it's business as usual at work since I work on a trading floor and nothing really would ever result in them closing our office... Luckily I have a walking commute, though!

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  5. That commute is insane - up here in the north we may roll our eyes but it's remarkable how unused to snow you are! Stay warm and safe!!

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  6. My thought too about your commute - hellacious! I'm sorry you were on the road so long.

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  7. I cannot believe you still had to go to work with conditions that bad! When I still lived in the South, everything closed for ice storms or for a bit of snow. Actually, snow itself usually wasn't that bad and rarely caused more than a two-hour delay, but school would be closed for days for ice, because the buses couldn't get on the back roads to pick up students.

    Now I'm in the Midwest, and I've been surprised to discover that sometimes snow can get bad enough to close jobs and schools! I thought for sure that in an area that snows a lot, nothing would ever close, but I was wrong. (Un)luckily for me, I can work from home, so I never actually get a snow day... BUT on extremely cold if technically safe days, I can still work from home. It's a trade-off.

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  8. Freezing rain is way worse than snow. I'm sorry your commute was so awful but I guess it's a good thing you made it home???

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  9. Wow! That traffic! I've been stuck in the snow once like that in my car and it was miserable!

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  10. Ouch sorry about that awful commute! My hubby works 8 miles from our home. That Friday that you spoke of, it took him 3 hours to get 8 miles down Florida Blvd. CRAZY! He could have walked home faster!

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