Idiots + Winter - The FAIL Collection Thread

Crazyjeeper said:
Yeah, Houston never gets snow, period. Snow is Houston would be like snow in Seville. It just doesn't happen. Up here in Dallas we get it yearly, and guess what, for every person that fails at driving, there are a thousand that seem to handle the snow and ice just fine.
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I have lived in a town 40 minutes NORTH of Houston for about 15 years. It snowed (ironically) the day we moved to Canada in 1993, and then it only covered the ground. It snowed in 1996, same deal. It snowed there overnight last night and it was only an inch.

Some of my friends have never seen snow their entire lives, so Houston, a large city that is farther south than me, has even less experience.

You have to keep in mind that Texas is a 12-15 hour journey from bottom (Brownsville) to top (Amarillo). We have all sorts of climates.
 
Spectre said:
Talk about people that don't know geography...

So, yeah, I'm still going to mock the Northern Europeans that fail miserably and surrender to 1-2cm of snow.
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Paris is not in Northern Europe.

Crazyjeeper said:
Snow is Houston would be like snow in Seville. It just doesn't happen.
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There was snow in Sevilla last year, dunno about this year.

Spectre said:
Ah, but narf thinks otherwise.
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I don't mind mocking the French for being French.
 
Houstonian here: Overnight tonight Houston got freezing rain, NOT snow. See:

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or

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The major interstates and bridges of Houston are covered in ice, swamping HPD and TXDOT beyond capacity and creating havoc. The city is pretty much shut down for today.

Understand that "winter" weather is virtually an unknown to us here in Houston. I'm told the last time Houston got ice was in 1997, more than a decade ago. We're used to 80 degree+ Thanksgivings and Christmases here. Galveston, an island about 25 miles to hour south, actually supports (to my understanding) genuine tropic plants.

And, I understand, ice will ruin your day regardless of what car you drive or what wheel drive it is, unless you have VERY specific ice tires.

Sidebar: Our airports at shutdown because they lack de-icing capabilities. This is really rare for us.
 
Cavide said:
Understand that "winter" weather is virtually an unknown to us here in Houston. I'm told the last time Houston got ice was in 1997, more than a decade ago. We're used to 80 degree+ Thanksgivings and Christmases here. Galveston, an island about 25 miles to hour south, actually supports (to my understanding) genuine tropic plants.
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Whoever told you that was wrong. Houston had ice last year - enough for significant closings. I only know this because I'm "essential operations" at work, and as everyone else got to go play in the ice, we were stuck at work. :p
 
Cavide said:
And, I understand, ice will ruin your day regardless of what car you drive or what wheel drive it is, unless you have VERY specific ice tires.
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Well, it depends. Some tires have a "suction" effect on ice but that means, they're usually not too good in snow. Snow tires are always compromises. What works perfectly in deep snow, is mostly horrible on dry tarmac and on ice. What works perfectly on slickroads and ice, is not so good in snow, etc.

You have to choose your winter tires according to the major character of winter in your area, which here is for example sludge and ice. Deep snow is the exception and only exists for a coupe of days a year, while we have lots of freezing fog or ice rain.
 
This is more of a fail on part of the Chicago local government.

How they allowed it to get this bad during the blizzard, I don't know.
 
Dear Chicago. You seem to be in need of assistance. I made this instruction manual to help.

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2011/02/06/ikea-snoplog.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2011/02/06/TK_sno_innerstad1_460.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2011/02/06/TK_sno_innerstad2_460.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2011/02/06/TK_sno_innerstad3_460.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2011/02/06/TK_sno_innerstad4_460.jpg
 
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Believe they did that^, I think it was snowing at 4-5" per hour at the time and everyone caught trapped quickly.
 
I keep hoping for another whooper of a storm to hit Utah before the season ends so I can get it on tape for you guys.
 
It took me over a week to post this due to the total shame involved in it. After we got nailed with two feet of snow last week, I had to go to work the next day. Yes, it really was important. The apartment complex I live in had been plowed a few hours before, but the winds caused drifts as high as four feet over the plowed areas, and they really weren't visible. The upshot was that I made it about thirty feet in forty-five minutes, and in the process ruined the transmission on my Fit.

Repeat: I was such a moron that I ruined the transmission on a Honda. I accomplished the impossible.

To compound the stupidity, I flew into Tulsa a few days ago after they got socked with an additional eight or so inches, and had a rented Hyundai Whatever-The-Hell-Their-Midsize-Four-Door-Is. I drove to a town about forty miles north of there for a business meeting, and, of course, their streets weren't exactly plowed. I got stuck at least once trying to pull into a restaurant parking lot. This being a rental, I didn't know how to shut the freaking traction control off (it also took me a few minutes to realize this thing HAD traction control; on a Hyundai?). At least with the Honda, I could POWAHHHH my way out (at the cost of the tranny). In this, I felt helpless.

So, the Idiot who Failed miserably is a midwest native who's comfortably driven through snow for decades, and I have to look at him in the mirror.
 
I'd guess flooring it on tractionless ice for awhile can't be too good for the unicorns and elves that are inside automatic transmissions.
 
argatoga said:
I'd guess flooring it on tractionless ice for awhile can't be too good for the unicorns and elves that are inside automatic transmissions.
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Rocking operations (drive, reverse, drive, reverse, drive, reverse, etc.) over a long period of time don't help either and can result in a very unhappy automatic.

narf said:
Yeah, but who would do that to his car :cry:
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Apparently someone who owns a Honda Fit.

The Spie said:
At least with the Honda, I could POWAHHHH my way out (at the cost of the tranny). In this, I felt helpless.
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It's called, "You were doing it wrong."
 
Yes, when your wheels are slipping on snow and ice, being Clarksonian is not the correct option.

It should be noted, now that the ice and snow are gone from the region for a little while (it hit freezing yesterday, and it's 70F right now) and the 'casualties' are being added up, there's an awful lot of recent RWD European cars (BMW, Mercedes, some Jaguars, etc., etc) in the local shops with rear brake damage. It seems that the concept of "let's use the rear ABS system to emulate an LSD instead of actually installing an LSD" does not work as well as the makers predicted.

I don't remember the Honda Fit actually having an option for a limited slip diff - that might have helped when Hammy McHamfist decided to drive through the snow. Or at least have gotten the car moving so that he didn't blow up his transaxle.
 
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