13 Degrees and Getting Colder

What a WINTER this has been thus far. The forecasted high temperature for my hometown which is forty five minutes northwest of Atlanta is 25 degrees today. It's 13 now. I have NEVER seen a high temperature that low for this area...living here or not. Typically in January, depending on the year, it will run from the upper 40's to low 50's for a high. Overnight readings will run in the upper 20's to low 30's. For a normal year, we might see one or two overnight lows in the teens. During some cold snaps, we might see a day or two in the upper 30's for a high temperature, but NEVER in the 20's. Atlanta TV said this is the most prolonged cold stretch since 1985. The coldest I've ever seen it get in the 8 years I've lived here was 12 degrees one year for an overnight low. I think the earth has tilted, or we're seeing a trend not seen for many years. Maybe it's an anomoly.

Early this morning, on my way to Birmingham to pick up a load headed to Connecticut, there was a major accident on an icy Interstate 20 somewhere in the vicinity of the Georgia-Alabama state line. Authorities shut down the highway for 3 hours, preventing me from getting to my destination for pick up. They had to re-dispatch the load to someone else. Even though the highway was re-opened, traffic was grid-locked heading west with the majority of vehicles being overnight trucks heading west out of Atlanta.

Now, my own state of Georgia is on my list of winter buffoons. This interstate roadway was not treated with anything. A midday snow...albeit light in nature the day before, had iced the roadway by the middle of the night. This area is prone to ice, and after scratching my wooden head, I can't figure out why they weren't prepared for this. All I can say is that, the further into the future we travel, the more incompetent road departments have become. Is state government to blame or has the poor economy affected budgets so badly that there is simply NO money to insure the safety of the travelling and commercial public?

I do believe a good deal of the problem lies with ignorant drivers who refuse to slow down when roadways become treacherous. I spoke with a clerk at the Temple, Georgia Pilot Travel Center who related to me that there was a muli-car pileup on I-285 near the airport (probably people trying to escape the cold and ice)on the infamous beltway that encompasses Atlanta. The posted speed limit is 55 miles per hour on the entire stretch of that highway. Most of the time, people travel 70 to 80 miles per hour on the perimeter.

I think they need to install gates on the entrance ramps of interstates and shut the freeways down if they're unwilling to treat the roadways. They have them out west and they use them when conditions prevent safe travel. People also need to learn that they could die or kill someone if they don't slow down in this kind of weather. The forecast is for an even more frigid weekend in Metro Atlanta. Get me to Arizona.