Deep Freeze

It has been warmer this week in Fairbanks than it has been in Minnesota. It has been warmer at the North Pole than it has been in Minnesota.

It's been colder than *&^% here, and the biggest place you can feel that freeze is during rush hour. Black Ice will freeze up the flow of traffic to a mere crawl. When I drive by this sign and see more than 30 minutes to Hwy 7.... I know I'm going to be in my car for 2 hours before getting home.

In my quest to let people know about life in Minnesota... here's a scenario that has played out several times this year:

Snowfall starts in the morning or mid-day. Whether big, fluffy flakes or small horizontal flakes, the snow is no problem at first. But, broadcasts start going out warning people of the possibility of a tough commute home. Trucks start plowing and putting down salt. Cars inch home. The ice that builds up on cars, melts, and falls back on the cold roads where it forms black ice. Then, you have a problem. It keeps tow trucks pretty busy for much of the day--interestingly enough, one tow truck operator says the vast majority of cars they pull out of ditches are 4-wheel drives.

When at home, one must shovel the driveway to compensate for the trucks forming a snow drift there and in order to get the garage doors open.

Overnight, temperatures plummet to -20, not counting the wind chill factor. Sometime in here, trucks shift to using sand because the salt brine no longer works. I get up an extra hour early to shovel out my car and get it started to run for a good 20 minutes. Auto thefts in the worst city in our area have skyrocketed. It's a pretty easy crime to commit when it's cold. People leave their cars going while they are in the grocery store!

On the commute, I stay off the major roads because by 6 am broadcasters are already announcing gridlock. People do seem somewhat smart about this, because everyone slows down to 15-20 mph and leaves a big amount of room to brake and slide at intersections. It turns a 32-mile drive into a long 2+ hour ordeal. Still, there's no way to prevent spin-outs sometimes. Dave and I have each only had one, and both times we didn't hit anything or anyone and we didn't require a tow truck. Lucky.

The roads are still clear now, but the ice keeps building up behind people's car tires and that causes more black ice spots... so there are always cars in ditches.

We're hoping for a warm-up, but not above freezing--because then this stuff will melt and there will be a bigger mess when it refreezes. It's no wonder most people take vacations during this time.