I need Midwest posters to weigh in. We are currently in the Twin Cities visiting family. The plan is to pick up a rental car at noon on Thursday and drive to Michigan for Christmas (other side of the family) spending the night in Chicago and arriving on Friday. I’m trying to convince H to change our rental car reservation to Wednesday instead, but he’s hesitant. I think we are going to be better off driving Wednesday into Thursday, but I can’t figure out what the weather people are saying about the storm, especially across multiple states. Last year we didn’t make it to Michigan until Christmas morning due to multiple flight cancellations. I’d like to avoid that this year.
I'd change. The west side typically gets it worse because of the lake effects and you're going to driving around the lake!
Can I vent here for a minute? We are supposed to visit family this weekend. It's a 6.5-hour drive north to DH's family, we'll stay with them for a couple of days, then 2.5 hours back south to my family, and then 4 hours back to our house. I am so frustrated with family members on both sides living in this state of denial that we might not be able to come because of the weather. Every time, it's, "Oh, it's not going to be bad. See you next week!" They aren't even willing to talk about contingency plans; they just expect that we will be there, no matter what, even if it were to mean risking our safety. I feel like there's zero consideration or appreciation for the fact that we drive that far at all, much less in crappy weather. Especially DH's family, who have visited us exactly twice in 11 years, and yet there's this attitude of, "Well of course you'll be here for Christmas." I guess I'm just sick of being taken for granted.
We are supposed to drive from NC to IL on Friday. I'm keeping a close eye on the weather. I hope we can make it. My mom will be so disappointed if we can't get there.
The blizzard conditions look like Friday, so I would not do this plan. Can you leave Wednesday?
I need Midwest posters to weigh in. We are currently in the Twin Cities visiting family. The plan is to pick up a rental car at noon on Thursday and drive to Michigan for Christmas (other side of the family) spending the night in Chicago and arriving on Friday. I’m trying to convince H to change our rental car reservation to Wednesday instead, but he’s hesitant. I think we are going to be better off driving Wednesday into Thursday, but I can’t figure out what the weather people are saying about the storm, especially across multiple states. Last year we didn’t make it to Michigan until Christmas morning due to multiple flight cancellations. I’d like to avoid that this year.
I also would not do this plan. Our blizzard conditions (Chicago area) are projected for Friday. Also, the weather goes west to east, so it will basically follow you into MI.
I agree with the Wednesday plan, and I might drive straight through instead of spending the night Thursday night in Chicago (depending on the length of the drive). If it is a 10 hour drive or so, I would definitely just do it all on Wednesday.
I need Midwest posters to weigh in. We are currently in the Twin Cities visiting family. The plan is to pick up a rental car at noon on Thursday and drive to Michigan for Christmas (other side of the family) spending the night in Chicago and arriving on Friday. I’m trying to convince H to change our rental car reservation to Wednesday instead, but he’s hesitant. I think we are going to be better off driving Wednesday into Thursday, but I can’t figure out what the weather people are saying about the storm, especially across multiple states. Last year we didn’t make it to Michigan until Christmas morning due to multiple flight cancellations. I’d like to avoid that this year.
It doesn't sound like your original plan will be doable given the current forecast. Definitely change it to a day earlier. Safe travels!
lust2hart, my sister said that too, and she also hasn't visited me often. I'm just ignoring it as she is generally a kind and understanding person.
Then we had a follow up phone call where I said well it's easier for me to plan on not coming because I am in charge of closing work for the storm, and she understood. So just repeat no, I guess, as often as you need to. I don't do those drives anymore because I feel like I will die at any minute and that is not fun for 6 hours or no visibility on black ice.
lust2hart , my sister said that too, and she also hasn't visited me often. I'm just ignoring it as she is generally a kind and understanding person.
Then we had a follow up phone call where I said well it's easier for me to plan on not coming because I am in charge of closing work for the storm, and she understood. So just repeat no, I guess, as often as you need to. I don't do those drives anymore because I feel like I will die at any minute and that is not fun for 6 hours or no visibility on black ice.
Oh yeah, we definitely won't go if it's going to be bad. It would just be nice if people would show some understanding and compassion for our position instead of giving us the guilt trip.
lust2hart, it’s time to channel the lessons we learned in 2020. It doesn’t matter what others think you should do or what their comfort is with different levels of risk. You can make whatever decision you feel is best for your family. Guilt-free. Just do your best to block out commentary from others…it’s not their lives.
ny96, I would most definitely change your rental. The sooner the better, as I’m sure you’re not the only one making changes to reservations.
For those who are going to try and make it to a different destination, I recommend going and getting a few things that you can throw in your freezer so you can still throw together a meal that feels different for Christmas if plans do end up changing. If you end up not needing it, you can use it to celebrate Sage travels when you get back. It would just feel like insult to injury if we ended up having to cancel and then had to eat PBJ for Christmas.
For those who are going to try and make it to a different destination, I recommend going and getting a few things that you can throw in your freezer so you can still throw together a meal that feels different for Christmas if plans do end up changing. If you end up not needing it, you can use it to celebrate Sage travels when you get back. It would just feel like insult to injury if we ended up having to cancel and then had to eat PBJ for Christmas.
This is what I did. I'm pretty sure we aren't going to make it to visit my DS in IL Friday/Saturday. I still bought everything I was going to need to make dinner for Christmas Eve so that we have something nice for dinner. I told my son to buy something special for dinner so they have a nice dinner for their first married Christmas together. It sucks we won't get to spend time with them, but it would be even worse if they had to have scrambled eggs for dinner on Christmas Eve (they always have eggs in the house).
We are supposed to drive from NC to IL on Friday. I'm keeping a close eye on the weather. I hope we can make it. My mom will be so disappointed if we can't get there.
The blizzard conditions look like Friday, so I would not do this plan. Can you leave Wednesday?
Unfortunately, no. Right now, my back up plan is to drive part way on Friday until we get close to the bad weather, spend the night somewhere, and then finish the drive on Saturday. I'm keeping a close eye on everything. We also have a couple routes that we can take depending on the path of the storm.
We got the start of the storm Sunday and it's still snowing. It's bitterly cold. We're north of the Washington border in Canada and prepared for awful winter storms, but there isn't a chance I'd drive a long distance in this. We've gotten close to 12 inches over ~2 days and I think it's supposed to pick up steam as it moves east so I'd expect it to be worse when it hits the upper midwest.
It's too early to tell. St. Louis can go either way for snow, and although one of the local teams is saying it will be really bad - really bad for us is a normal snow for some of you. As long as its not ice, it's fine. We don't have anywhere to be except my parents' house five minutes away.
My son moved to Springfield, IL about 1 1/2 yrs ago and he grew up in SE WI (so he's used to driving in snow). They are supposed to be in the path of this storm. He said everyone panics in Springfield when any snow is predicted. Last year they had more snow than usual down there and everything shut down (grocery stores, restaurants). It takes a lot up here in WI to shut places down! I realize they don't have the snowplows, salt, etc that areas like WI have due to not getting much snow, so driving is more hazardous than places that have the resources.
Oh wow this surprises me. I’m about an hour from Springfield and unless we get a major blizzard of like two feet of snow, things like grocery stores don’t shut down for winter weather. Maybe a local restaurant may choose to for a bigger regular storm but none of the chains do. Back in 2011 we had a blizzard with 18” of snow. My H was an assistant manager at a grocery store at the time and they expected him to come in. We were living in an apartment and couldn’t even get out of our unplowed parking lot so he told them no lol.
Post by InBetweenDays on Dec 20, 2022 12:31:26 GMT -5
We are predicted to get 2-8" (which is a lot for Seattle since we have lots of hills and hardly any snow plows). Woke up to clear roads and sleet/rain. Started snowing at 8am and within 1.5 hours we have 1" of new snow. And we live pretty close to the water so I'm sure it's worse elsewhere in the city. Doesn't look to be letting up anytime soon.
Ok douche, go ahead and call it mud. My husband DID have halitosis. We addressed it after I talked to you girls on here and guess what? Years later, no problem. Mofongo, you're a cunt. Eat shit. ~anonnamus
Maybe? LOL - the meteorologists are holding off predicting what will happen in MI until it gets closer. I'm going to the store tonight to get the last few things we need for the holiday meals so I can hopefully miss the mad rush of folks stocking up.
Kid is worried it will mess up plans for Christmas Eve with family but we'll see.
Otherwise we're stocked with firewood and kerosene should the power go out but thankfully that doesn't happen too often because our power lines are buried.
This is good to know. We are forecasted to get colder temps but I haven’t seen any snow predictions but looking at weather maps shows it coming across my area (metro Detroit)
My son moved to Springfield, IL about 1 1/2 yrs ago and he grew up in SE WI (so he's used to driving in snow). They are supposed to be in the path of this storm. He said everyone panics in Springfield when any snow is predicted. Last year they had more snow than usual down there and everything shut down (grocery stores, restaurants). It takes a lot up here in WI to shut places down! I realize they don't have the snowplows, salt, etc that areas like WI have due to not getting much snow, so driving is more hazardous than places that have the resources.
Oh wow this surprises me. I’m about an hour from Springfield and unless we get a major blizzard of like two feet of snow, things like grocery stores don’t shut down for winter weather. Maybe a local restaurant may choose to for a bigger regular storm but none of the chains do. Back in 2011 we had a blizzard with 18” of snow. My H was an assistant manager at a grocery store at the time and they expected him to come in. We were living in an apartment and couldn’t even get out of our unplowed parking lot so he told them no lol.
I was surprised when he told me that. They had gone out to get some dinner and none of the streets were plowed and there were no cars in the parking lots for places that should be open. They called around to find a place to get dinner and every place they called was closed. They did find a bar within walking distance to their house that was open and got dinner there, but basically that was their only option. He said everyone at work is pretty much freaking out about the upcoming snow.
Post by rachelgreen on Dec 20, 2022 13:12:17 GMT -5
Milwaukee burbs here. I have a two week old newborn so I’m a little happy to have yet another reason to not drive home to the Chicago burbs for Christmas. My stepdad plows the runways at O’Hare so he won’t even be home anyway. He’s being called in tomorrow night for in-call and probably won’t be home until Christmas Day.
Apparently, we are in it again (Buffalo), but they haven't quite nailed down how bad they think it will be for us except to say potentially expect feet of snow (again). Seems a bit unfair since we had that giant major storm just before Thanksgiving, but here we are.
obviously Buffalo here- no travel plans and i love any amount of snow- but at this point i feel like these storms are just following our football team
We are traveling Thursday and it looks like a lot of rain so we’ll work around that (only about a 45 minute drive). MIL’s house loses power al the time though so that’s less appealing.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
Last night we were predicted to get 2-8 inches here by noon. It's a little early to call it but luckily it's on the lower end of that. Tomorrow and the next will be the deep freeze that turns this into solid ice so I"m eager to get my driveway and sidewalk cleaned up while I still can once it stops snowing.
Post by RoxMonster on Dec 20, 2022 14:05:25 GMT -5
Local meteorologists are saying the storm is moving faster and is drier than expected so our snow totals aren’t bad (3-6). But they’re still warning about wind gusts of 50+ and dangerous wind chills of -35 so still going to be a very dangerous storm if out traveling.
Do theater shows ever cancel due to weather? I have tickets to Les Mis in Detroit this Friday during the height of our storm. I am wondering if we'll still be going.
Post by estrellita on Dec 20, 2022 14:30:06 GMT -5
MN here. Per my phone, we'll be getting snow tomorrow. I don't think we'll get a ton (at least in my area, it seems to get less than the TC area for some reason) but it'll be COLD. My concern with the cold is that salt on the roads basically does nothing when it's this cold. Assuming everything is cleared up by the weekend, we should be fine. We're just going to ILs Sat, then to my parents for the night/Sun, the furthest we'll travel is about 90 miles from home, so not too bad. And since our holidays have gotten smaller, it's easy to reschedule if needed. Poor A had her birthday party rescheduled several times and ended up having two instead, thanks to my parents and sister catching covid, lol.
Do theater shows ever cancel due to weather? I have tickets to Les Mis in Detroit this Friday during the height of our storm. I am wondering if we'll still be going.
Yes, they definitely do. I don't know if yours will, but it has happened.
We are predicted to get 2-8" (which is a lot for Seattle since we have lots of hills and hardly any snow plows). Woke up to clear roads and sleet/rain. Started snowing at 8am and within 1.5 hours we have 1" of new snow. And we live pretty close to the water so I'm sure it's worse elsewhere in the city. Doesn't look to be letting up anytime soon.
I’m on the Eastside (Seattle suburbs) and most of the snow that is gotten had melted by this morning with all the rain. Though it’s been snowing for the last couple few hours and we definitely have accumulation now. The reports I’ve been checking vary from 3-7” of snow for me.
At this point I’m staying home where I’m warm and safe. I almost had to abandon my car on an icy/any road Sunday afternoon so staying put. The next 2 days are not supposed to be above freezing so everything will just be ice. I’m hoping to get out Friday though as I still have stuff I need to get done.
ny96 what did you decide? I hope you convinced your H to rent the car and start out on Wednesday. Scroll down to see what Lake Shore Drive looked like during the last big blizzard:
I am jealous of you Midwesterners. Because I never owned a car in Chicago and lived in an apartment where someone else did all the shoveling, I used to love snowstorms there. It's supposed to be rainy and in in the 40s in Maine all weekend. No snow for us on Christmas!