Last two posters need to park in the garage

When I drove to work at around 10 pm (1179 to campus via Briarcrest/Villa Maria) that only major areas of ice was on bridges and, for some reason, a few hundred yards of Agronomy, Made me wonder if some sprinklers ran.

Since I work overnight, with no covered parking anywhere close, here's some things I learned:

- if you can, park so that your driver's door is on the downwind side. Ice will be thicker on the windward side. I was able to get my door open without any scraping. It took my co-worker almost 10 minutes just to get his door open at 7 am.

- speaking of scraping, bring your scraping tool inside with you, in case you need to use it to get into your car.

- if your car doesn't have remote start, bring an extra key. That way you can start it, leave it running, and lock it. Get the car warmed up, and let the defrosters start to work on the window ice.

- weight in the back helps if you have powered rear wheels, especially for pickups, and it's critical if your truck is 2WD like mine. I had 4 35 lb buckets of cat litter (I have 3 cats, and I always stock up around Christmas just for this reason) plus a bunch of cinder blocks in the back.

Smeghead4761 said:

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When I drove to work at around 10 pm (1179 to campus via Briarcrest/Villa Maria) that only major areas of ice was on bridges and, for some reason, a few hundred yards of Agronomy, Made me wonder if some sprinklers ran.

Since I work overnight, with no covered parking anywhere close, here's some things I learned:

- if you can, park so that your driver's door is on the downwind side. Ice will be thicker on the windward side. I was able to get my door open without any scraping. It took my co-worker almost 10 minutes just to get his door open at 7 am.

- speaking of scraping, bring your scraping tool inside with you, in case you need to use it to get into your car.

- if your car doesn't have remote start, bring an extra key. That way you can start it, leave it running, and lock it. Get the car warmed up, and let the defrosters start to work on the window ice.

- weight in the back helps if you have powered rear wheels, especially for pickups, and it's critical if your truck is 2WD like mine. I had 4 35 lb buckets of cat litter (I have 3 cats, and I always stock up around Christmas just for this reason) plus a bunch of cinder blocks in the back.

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Here are a few tips for somebody who lived in Alaska.

The kitty litter or sand works great. You can also spread it out under the tires if you get stuck somewhere. If will give you enough traction to get off the stretch of ice.

Scrapers are $5. Keep one in every car. Keep another by your keys or in the garage.

When you park your car, flip your wipers up. When the sleet and ice arrive, the wipers aren't stuck and can be used to clear the ice.

Show it's gonna sunny and gonna get to 35-36 today. That would be really great.

South College Station to campus was fine. I drove a small stretch on Hwy 6 service road only. Skipped Hwy 6 altogether and avoided all overpasses. Texas Avenue was fine. You'd have to be hot rodding to have any problems. 99% of road had no ice or moisture.

Biggest danger is falling down in the parking lots.

You get 1,000 "husband points" for this action and we all got a good laugh.

Did she briefly consider getting gas ahead of the storm?

bobinator said:

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Need to share this somewhere but I had this idea to earn some points with the wife tonight by taking her car and filling it up with gas (was practically on E) and go ahead and get all the ice and everything off the windows this evening to save her time in the morning. Well this was all a great plan until I got to HEB and realized I forgot to de-ice the gas cap panel.

So I ended up running inside HEB and getting a bottle of water and scraping the ice off of it with an old card in my wallet freezing my butt off at the HEB gas thing cursing myself the entire time.

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Who among us hasn't gone through their wallet trying to decide which card was in the worst shape and already in line for replacement soon when picking out their ice scraper?

Road in south CS were >95% totally fine. Elevated roads, bridges, or areas that stay shaded might have some slick through the day. Rural areas or further north might be less ideal. The worst street I saw was my own (cul de sac). Watch for complacency. There's just enough out there to still get in trouble if you space out at the wrong time.

Tailgate88 said:

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bobinator said:

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Need to share this somewhere but I had this idea to earn some points with the wife tonight by taking her car and filling it up with gas (was practically on E) and go ahead and get all the ice and everything off the windows this evening to save her time in the morning. Well this was all a great plan until I got to HEB and realized I forgot to de-ice the gas cap panel.

So I ended up running inside HEB and getting a bottle of water and scraping the ice off of it with an old card in my wallet freezing my butt off at the HEB gas thing cursing myself the entire time.

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Who among us hasn't gone through their wallet trying to decide which card was in the worst shape and already in line for replacement soon when picking out their ice scraper?

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This is exactly why I keep a Kroger card in my wallet.

With how much is melting right now, I can't see a way that we go back tomorrow based on how the roads already were. I mean water is just pouring off my roof right now and I can't see it all drying before it freezes hard over night

JMac03 said:

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With how much is melting right now, I can't see a way that we go back tomorrow based on how the roads already were. I mean water is just pouring off my roof right now and I can't see it all drying before it freezes hard over night

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I think schools will cancel tomorrow also or at least do a late start due to frigid temps in the morning.
Thats a lot of kids waiting outside for school busses with temps in the teens and wind chills in single digits.

Just remember when it comes to schools and closures it isn't about the 80% that lives inside the city limits and those roads but rather the 20% that live outside the city and have to travel on backroads that probably aren't clear of ice in the morning.

Quote:

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I think schools will cancel tomorrow also or at least do a late start due to frigid temps in the morning.
Thats a lot of kids waiting outside for school busses with temps in the teens and wind chills in single digits.

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Agree with this
All of Brazos Valley is in an Extreme Cold temp warning till noon tomorrow.
Morning temps are gonna be very frigid and kids waiting outside for school busses and teachers that are on car duty in the morning will be dangerous temp conditions.
Plus as mentioned rural areas are gonna be dealing with slick bridges and overpasses.

I seem to remember one year all the schools canceling an extra day most people didn't understand why . It was because of reasons like this.

A&M is open for normal operations tomorrow.

This is why schools have built in bad weather days and yes we are smarter now than back in the day.

People up north die of heat stroke when the temps are in the 80s, too. They are "soft" when it gets hot.