The First Snow Of The Season (Or How I Survived The Apocalypse)

I live in a part of the country where we get all four seasons, full strength. And while winter does not officially start for over a month, late fall can sometimes do a pretty effective job of imitating it. It did so last week, and I lived to tell the tale.

I will confess up front that I suffer from a condition that Marianne has pointed out many times, and that I like to call “Northern Indiana Superiority Complex”. This affects people who grew up in Northern Indiana, but who now live in Central Indiana. It mainly manifests following snowfall in the wintertime, and the biggest trait is the transformation from seeing myself surrounded on the roads by fellow citizens to seeing myself surrounded on the roads by idiots.

My hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana is about 100 miles north of my current home in Indianapolis. That 100 miles is significant for being about 5 degrees colder on average, and putting Fort Wayne closer to the path of winds that can load up with snow from the Great Lakes. I will freely defer to people who grew up in South Bend, Indiana, which is about 90 miles west of Fort Wayne, and is the epicenter of “lake effect” snow dumps of massive proportions. But we got our share, which is significantly more than is usually seen in Central Indiana.

From what I can find with the minimal effort I can muster is that while Indianapolis typically sees a touch under 26 inches of snow in a winter season, Fort Wayne gets over 33 inches, with there being an inch of snow on the ground for about one-third of the days during a typical winter. Why is this relevant? Because when the first decent snow hits in late fall, my adopted hometown 100 miles to the south seems to lose its mind.

I should have taken the warning more seriously when the weather app on my phone told me about a “Winter Weather Advisory” for that evening and the next day. I read the advisory, which told me that there was an inch or so of snow expected. Really? A Winter Weather Advisory for an inch of snow? Where I grew up this was what we called a normal winter day. Has the world gone soft or what?

Even better, this bit of snow was likely to accumulate only on lawns and bridges, but not on streets. Which probably gave the city enough of an excuse to avoid calling out the salt trucks. Because a little more snow than expected put a light dusting on the roads by morning. Which turned into, well, let’s call it an event.

I usually pull up Google Maps in the morning to check on traffic for my 20-minute morning commute, and all seemed well, with only a 2 or 3 minute delay expected because of slower traffic. But it seems that my fellow citizens waited until I set out before having their accidents. And I could see how they happened, with the “4 wheel drive people” charging their way around slower traffic like it was sunny and 75 degrees outside. At least 3 accidents along my route doubled my time to work and made me late. My local newspaper reported 50-something crashes that day, which just makes me shake my head.

“Slow down and don’t make any sudden moves” is second nature to me on winter roads. Something I learned after sliding into a snowy ditch in my high school years after my 1967 Ford Galaxie with its bias ply tires refused to go in the direction I was steering. Another thing to do is to stay as far away from other traffic as you can. But that seems to be a foreign concept to many people around here. Like the guy in the Kia Telluride who was aggressively tailgating and changing lanes on the slick interstate highway. If he didn’t end up as one of that 50+ accidents, I would be surprised.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are the people who are so scared to be on the roads that they drive dangerously slowly in the middle lane. It is when Mr. Telluride blasts up upon the back bumper of Scaredy Slowpoke that the magic happens. “Magic” meaning blocked lanes and lines of idling traffic as far as you can see.

People: Winter comes to those of us in the Midwest every year. It is the same snowy weather we had last year and the year before that, going back, well, forever. Is it really that hard to remember how you dealt with it last year? Do we really have such short attention spans? Please don’t answer these questions, because I don’t think I will like the answers.

I will make everyone in my area of the country a deal – I will do my best to keep my Northern Indiana Superiority Complex under control, if the rest of you will just use your heads and not drive like idiots when we get a little bit of snow on the roads. But I have a bad feeling that this truce will only last until the next snowfall.

Photo from somewhere in Indiana following the blizzard of 1978. A scene nothing like the snowfall described in this post, although that would be difficult to tell from a large portion of the driving population of central Indiana.

47 thoughts on “The First Snow Of The Season (Or How I Survived The Apocalypse)”

  1. Now you’re driving truck, does it change your generosity toward other drivers?

    I only assume everyone around me is an idiot. When I was teaching my daughter to drive, I told her: “always assume that person is going to do the dumbest, most asinine thing. You’ll never be disappointed and you’ll sometimes be surprised.”

    Have you seen the movie Memento? The main character is a dude with a short-term memory issue. On one commute I had to downtown Denver, I started referring to everyone as Memento Drivers: Every day they did the same drive as before for the first time.

    “People: Winter comes to those of us in the Midwest every year. It is the same snowy weather we had last year and the year before that, going back, well, forever. Is it really that hard to remember how you dealt with it last year? Do we really have such short attention spans? Please don’t answer these questions, because I don’t think I will like the answers. ” I have said this paragraph nearly verbatim. It’s more baffling when “Midwest” can be swapped for “Colorado” or “The Mountains”.

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    • I think the switch to driving trucks has made me more aware of the stupid things other driver do – including many drivers of big rigs. When I see a semi in the left lane following another car or semi by maybe 10 feet at 70 mph, I wonder how that person ever managed to get a CDL. My company encourages an 8-10 second following distance, which will almost certainly keep a driver out of trouble if something suddenly happens with the vehicle ahead. Open distance ahead of my truck is like altitude to a pilot – you can almost never have enough.

      I have not seen Memento, but I like the description of everyone making the commute for the first time every morning. Some days it seems like that.

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      • Yeah, I know truck drivers aren’t immune from doing the Doofus, but it seems to be a far smaller percentage of them (anecdotally speaking).

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  2. Ah, snow. One of the most vulgar four-lettered words in the English language. I detest winter and I extend you and Marianne my sympathies for having had a snow already. We’ve thankfully avoided that so far, with today’s forecast high being around 75.

    As the guy that gets trotted out to go on television when the weather goes sour, my annual ritual with the first forecasted snow is to tell the young, naive reporter that it’s been around nine months since anyone has driven in snow and people need to consider how driving in inclement weather is not a daily practiced skill. I will also throw in the little “winter storms are like people; they have the same physical characteristics, but each has a unique personality”.

    I do prefer the approach of one of my counterparts in an urban area. A reporter asked him if people would have trouble driving in the snow. His answer, which aired, was along the lines of “does it matter? Hell, people around here can’t drive when it’s sunny and 90 degrees.”

    It’s about time for Jason to withdraw from being involved with winter weather festivities. My sympathies (again) for having to navigate winter in a more populated area, where the number who ought not be driving seems to grow exponentially.

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    • I always think of you when the roads get slick. I only have to worry about me and the drivers immediately around me. You have to worry about all of them.

      I love your counterpart’s attitude, and he has a point. Both of us are cursed to live in areas where we get snow frequently enough that it’s a regular occurrence in winter, but not frequently enough for drivers to ever become used to it.

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  3. Living half my life in Wisconsin, I can tell you the winter and snow driving thing is an area of distain for me. I’ve noticed a few things over the years, and one of them is that every year, during the first big snow, it seems like people who have lived here forever have forgotten how to drive in the snow, like they haven’t been living here at all! Some sort of mass brain “fart” that has eliminated any historic motor skills associated with a life time of driving in snow! It’s inexplicable! Some of this seems to stem from climate change, in that we seem to have far less “snow events” now than we did when I was a kid.

    My second “hate” is moronic 4-wheel drive people! Just because it might be easier going for your vehicle in snow, doesn’t mean it goes on ice, or that you can stop it on ice! Any winter accident of multiple vehicles here in the winter wonderland state most certainly contains a 4-wheel drive vehicle driven by a marginally skilled winter driver who is also overconfident about both their skills and what the vehicle can actually “do”.

    I have to say, my five years in Indianapolis was an eye-opener for me in terms of government services associated with winter weather. Their tax structure, which is lower than almost any other place I ever lived, resulted in hugely substandard services when it came to winter snow abatement (as well as road repair). I saw three or four inch snows that shut down the interstate while I was there, and people had to abandon their cars and crawl up the side hills of the interstate to get to street level to be “rescued”. That amount of snow wouldn’t shut down anything in Wisconsin, and the roads would have been well plowed, salted, and “brined” both before the snow event, and during it. I learned that if there was an expected snow event in Indianapolis, it was just better to stay home, cancel meetings, and call in “sick”. I also learned that there’s “low taxes”, and then there’s taxes so low in places that they can’t function with expected metropolitan services.

    Of course, the great thing about being retired, is that usually about 25 days a month, I’ve got no place to be! When the snow starts, I just make more coffee, fire up my stereo, and play more of my jazz CD’s!

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    • In Indianapolis’ defense, it is far enough south that it just doesn’t see the kind of snow that people 100 miles or more farther north get. A place like South Bend that gets gobs of snow every year can justify spending a lot on snow removal because it gets used all the time. Here, we have to be more pragmatic about it. So this is another annoying feature for those of us who grew up in real snow country. I think we may have only seen two decent snowfalls last year of the kinds that call for major snow removal equipment. I have relatives in east Tennessee. They rarely see snow so they have virtually no snow removal equipment. When that rare snowfall comes, the whole area just shuts down.

      Your observation of Wisconsin drivers is interesting. I would think there would be more long-term snow driving memory there, but maybe everyone forgets during warm weather.

      And yes on the 4×4 drivers. The bigger and heavier the 4×4, the faster the drivers seem to go on slick roads. I will confess to snickering whenever I see one off in a ditch. I don’t wish misfortune on others, but you are right – they can’t turn or stop any better than the rest of us. I have spent my life driving 2 wheel drive cars in snow, and they do just fine if you drive them with some sense.

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      • Another weird “red flag” for Wisconsin, is it seems to be cyclical that people’s cars, snow mobiles, fishing shacks, and themselves fall through the ice on lakes and sink. There will be little of this for years, then all of a sudden, it seems like people lose their “winter lore”, and are driving and snowmobiling on partially frozen lakes, way to warm to do this, and end up falling in and sinking! You’ll get about five years of this and then it will disappear for a while. Sheesh…

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  4. With that first snow last week, I was reminded of the importance of clearing our windshields (and rear windows of course), and all snow off our cars. Without a word of exaggeration, I can relate to you of the car driving down my street, with said inch (or two truth be told) of snow on all four windows, yet cruising along like it was July. I would have gotten the license number and called it in, had that not been snow covered also.

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    • Both of my cars live in a garage, so I don’t have to spend time cleaning my car in the morning. But yes, trying to drive through a 6 inch hole that someone in a hurry cleared from the part of the windshield right in front of the steering wheel is a bad idea. “The defroster will have it clear in a minute or two” is usually not a true statement. Then there is the frozen cake of snow that will suddenly release from somebody’s roof right into the car behind them on the highway. That is always exciting.

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  5. I’ll call your Northern Indiana Superiority Complex and raise you New England Superiority Complex.

    Although, as someone who absolutely suffers (or rather enjoys if the truth be told) from that Complex, I am beginning to think it’s actually just “Someone Over the Age of 50 Complex”. So yeah, I agree with all of your observations – and those here in the comments thus far – about perplexing winter driving behavior. I’ll just add a couple more…

    I have been known to opine that one of the problems with today’s horrid winter (and in general bad weather) driving skills is that there are several generations of drivers on the roads who have too much “faith” in technology. Just as all too many people assume that their phones are magical oracles of eternal wisdom, there are many, many, drivers who assume that AWD, anti-lock brakes, airbags, and physical bulk are all going to somehow combine to make them and their vehicles immune to the laws of physics. Hence, they charge forth like your guy in the Telluride without concern. He, by the way, is also depending on the fact that his vehicle is named after some place in Colorado and therefore is imbued with the same rugged qualities that gave rise to the Rocky Mountains or something and therefore is invincible.

    I drive a rear wheel drive vehicle in a place where it snows sometimes…and many people have declared that I must be certifiably insane. That of course is supported by my maniacal laughter at them as they sit stuck in the median in their Tellurides and I drive without making any sudden moves, right by them.

    In the same storm that brought you your recent snow in Indianapolis, Rochester, NY got about an inch. This gave my son (who lives in Rochester) the chance to tell me about the 17 car pile up that shut down traffic in the city for several hours. He’s only 25, but is already a excellent purveyor of New England Superiority Complex.

    Finally, I am fascinated with the trend in recent years to give nearly every forecast snow event a name, and to declare it an apocalypse. It seems like this started about 6 years ago when the term “snowpocalypse” was created…and it’s spread like pumpkin spice in October. I suppose we have social media to thank for that. But it’s just one more thing that makes me shake my head and wonder what the world is up to these days.

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    • I absolutely salute your New England Superiority Complex! The part about age 50 might be valid, but I will confess to also having enjoyed this attitude since I was in my late 20s.

      Your story about Rochester is surprising because there are few places that get pummeled with more snow than Rochester. But maybe I should not be surprised because of your other observation, younger people and a faith in tech that will steamroll every obstacle in front of them. And yes, I think that the hardy sounding name of many 4×4 vehicles contributes to this scourge.

      On the snowpocalypse thing, I almost segued into a story I heard at work about a guy who walked into a convenience store and was met with gallons of milk at $7 each. The panicked need for bread and milk following the first dozen snowflakes to hit the ground is another thing that makes me sit in my comfy chair and shake my head. Kids today.

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  8. I remember being astounded when a Kansas co-worker in his van grew impatient stuck behind the snowplow on the freeway. As he passed and moved in front of the plow, he slid off the interstate into the ditch. I learned this the next day when he asked me to drive him to the impound lot. I noticed his tires were bald. No matter how well you drive, you also need to be prepared for winter!

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  9. We’re lucky here in Harrisburg, as we are sheltered by mountains to the north and west. We rarely have a white Christmas, as most of our major storms hit between mid-January and mid-March. My in-laws in Indiana, Pennsylvania, have already had some snow.

    I never felt a need for all-wheel-drive. I learned to drive on a 1973 AMC Gremlin, which had lousy traction in the rain. It was so bad in the snow that we once got up a hill by turning around and backing up the entire way!

    Around here, the problem isn’t the drivers as much as the people rushing to buy milk, bread and toilet paper, even when the forecast only calls for 2-3 inches of snow. You’d think everyone lives in the Little House on the Prairie and faces being snowed in for weeks, based on the crowds at the local grocery stores!

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    • I know, right? The rush on the stores whenever snow (of any amount) is forecast is amazing to me too. And once you can drive in slick weather in a car with really bad traction, you are probably pretty well set in anything else.

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  10. First off, love the photo. Is that from the 70? I grew up in Northern Indiana too. Back then when they said “weather advisory,” they meant it! Now, as you mentioned our first snow, was just a dusting of it. Nothing to be alarmed about and gone two days later. THAT, is not a snow storm. A snow storm is like your photo… hard to dig ourselves out. Anyhow, thanks for the chuckle.

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  11. We have the same kind of drivers here in Alberta. In good or bad weather they drive too fast and too close to the car in front of them. I hate to generalize… okay I don’t hate to generalize – but these drivers often look to be young female adults and/or non-white which suggests, in our part of the world, recent immigrants. (Our province has 429,000 more licensed drivers now than we did 4 years ago which is fairly significant in a province with 4.8 million people. Apparently only 55% of new drivers take a driver training course.)

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    • I figured that you Canadians might have things better, though in a more snow/more competence kind of way. But I can see that many recent arrivals to your climate could dumb down the average driving skill in snow.

      Don’t get me started on the aggressiveness of young females behind the wheel. They are shrinking violets no more.

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  12. I remember in the late 70’s, here in central Illinois snow scenes like the picture above were common. It amazes me how badly drivers are, not only here in Illinois, but across the US. I have held a Class B CDL plus a motorcycle license since the 1980’s, and can’t count the number of ridiculous, unsafe things I’ve seen on the roads. I also survived driving rear wheel drive cars, pickup trucks and suburbans up until 2 years ago when I got my first 4WD truck. And I’ve yet to have the need to engage 4WD.
    I have often said that everyone should be mandated to learn to ride a motorcycle first, before getting a license of any kind. Riding a small vehicle without a metal cocoon around you, where every other vehicle on the road has the potential to kill you, makes one a much more aware and safer driver.
    I also find it amusing that french toast becomes so popular during times of inclement weather – hence the runs on milk, bread and eggs every time there’s a hint of precipitation in the forecast!

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    • Chad, I gave up my motorcycle license years ago after a few harrowing near misses. I agree that you don’t even understand the term “defensive driving” until you’ve been riding regularly on a motorcycle. I made the final decision after talking with an old timer on a vintage Indian, who told me that it’s not whether or not you’re going to get in an accident; it’s how bad is it going to be!

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    • You make a great observation about people learning on motorcycles, although I have seen my share of crazy motorcyclists.

      And French toast. Of course!! You have solved one of life’s great riddles!

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  13. JP, it’s too bad that WP was eating your comments because in my Monday post, I replied to your comment by inquiring about how you fared in your area/job. I had heard Michigan and Indiana were in bad shape, not so much for me, but mostly Northern Michigan, although we had rain that morphed into freezing rain, then two snow events, the latter one 2.2 inches. I pictured you in the big rig slip-slidin’ away. It’s much too early for the white stuff. How did I enjoy it when I was a kid?

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    • It was definitely more fun as a kid, but I will confess that I see a little adventure in it – as long as things aren’t too bad. The good news was that they had me subbing for somebody Monday on a job that kept me on a manufacturing company’s campus all day, so by the time I got to a real road, everything had melted.

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  16. I’ve been thinking about this whole entry, and our humorous look at winter drivers from more temperate climates who make many bonehead decisions. It reminds me of my older sister, who worked in academia in the central south (across Tennessee, Kentucky. and northern Arkansas) for most all of her adult life. There were many years that she lamented not having a winter of moderate, and “dry” (hence “light”) snow, vs. the terrible conditions of ice storms. For most of her life, she’s lived places where there are power outages from heavy ice tearing down power lines (and actually more than a few a year, that sometimes last more that a few days); as well as coming out of the house to totally iced over roadways and sidewalks. There’s plenty of Youtube videos showing UPS trucks and city buses sliding down streets with zero controllability and traction! When that stuff happens in the central south, you can’t even leave the house: your passage is literally “nil”. I’d certainly prefer our usual 3-4 inch dry snows to icing of any kind!

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    • Yes, I don’t like ice storms at all. Driving in them it’s snow rules x10 – any change in speed or direction must be done really gradually, and you have all the maneuverability of an ocean liner.

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  17. One of the most entertaining videos I can recall on this subject is from Seattle.

    I have good friends in Seattle and remember watching this live-streamed at the time. It just goes to show you that if the average driver is not accustomed to the conditions, there’s probably little understanding of how gravity and physics work. 

    Oh, and the value of going slow, not making any sudden moves, and the usefulness of winter compound tires.

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    • Nice Jeff! You know, I look at some of these, and marvel that there are people in vehicles, watching all these cars and busses sliding sideways down hill, or stuck spinning their wheels trying to get up a hill, and they still go right into it, thinking “I don’t know what”. What do they think they’re going to do different?

      I have to say, there’s probably only once in the last twenty-five years, where I left the house without this condition being reported. Usually there’s a ton of “fair warning” to stay home….and usually, if it’s anywhere between 27 and 35 degrees, you should already know there’s going to be trouble!

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  18. I remember this behavior from living in Colorado. The first storm of the season – usually around Halloween – was always the worst no matter the amount of precip. People simply forget how to drive in winter weather even though they were just doing so five months earlier. And those drivers in their big, fancy 4-wheel drive SUV’s? Don’t get me started. Somehow the “own the road” gene comes out in full force.

    My Saint Mary’s wife and I went to the Notre Dame-USC game in late October. It was heavy jackets and hats all day long, and from the (night time) halftime on it was a steady rain. But at least we didn’t go to the Navy game three weeks later. THAT one was a “wintry mix” from start to finish. Once the players left the field it quickly became an undisturbed blanket of white. Brought back a lot of memories of home games in November (usually against Penn St). My tolerance for watching sports in that kind of weather is long gone.

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    • If you have no tolerance for winter driving, you moved to the right place! With your report from your former home in Colorado, I am beginning to think that people have short memories on how to drive in slick weather. Or else, we are so mobile that the inexperienced keep moving to snow country. For some reason.

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  19. It’s all so true. I try to stay off the roads during the first few snow events, as no matter how little we get, people forget how to drive. I find some people drive like they are in a video game now anyways, no matter the weather. I’m lucky as I live in a “banana belt” area which misses most of the bigger storms, whereas 100 miles to the east is the “snowbelt” area where the streamers come off Lake Huron. It gets even worse up in “cottage country” where winter is like out west. When I was working I would drive towards the ‘snowbelt area’ and could predict just where the snow would start just outside the town where I worked, even though the sun would be shining at home. I had some very bad drives, often at night which I wonder looking back how I survived. I don’t even have ‘snow tires’ on my car, although many people do now and they are talking about making it mandatory.

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    • I have not owned snow tires since the days before radial tires became common. I have been able to survive with all-season tires. Every now and then I look online at “winter tires” and wonder if they are worth it, but because the snow is less common here, I have never pulled that trigger.

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      • Snow tires are a big thing here, but I have good all season tires too, and now I don’t drive as much, so I’ve never bothered, plus you have to store them and have someone put them on etc.

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