Crazy winter in the South--is this the Polar Shift?

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   Stacie Lposted 13 years ago

   ATLANTA  Stranded vehicles littered roadsides at daybreak Monday as several inches of snow and sleet coated Atlanta and other parts of the South, freezing the morning commute in many areas and canceling thousands of flights at the world's busiest airport.
   
   The winter blast rolled across the South on Sunday, coating bridges and roads with snow, sleet and freezing rain and causing at least two deaths in Louisiana. The governors of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee declared emergencies and schools and colleges called off classes. Snow and ice had blanketed several cities, including up to 3 inches in parts of Atlanta, which rarely gets so much.
   
   Up to nine inches of snow fell in highland parts of the South but authorities said a bigger problem was icy roads.
   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40989136/ns … ;GT1=43001
   
   I watched the weather channel show snow in parts of the south that never get snow. one southern city only had 1 snow plow for the whole city..
   is this pert of the polar shift?

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   ralwusposted 13 years ago

   waaaa. couldn't be nicer for better folk. better there than here. LOL at least the kids will enjoy it I bet.

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   Michael Willisposted 13 years ago

   We got hit hard in Arkansas as well. Measured 8 inches last night and it continued to snow. Will measure again in a bit.
   
   I-30 in Arkansas has a 4 county stretch running sw-se where traffic is at a stand-still. Has been since last evening. Dozens of tractor trailers jack-knifed and are blocking interstate.

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      Rafiniposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      ya know, I think it'd be a good idea for everyone in the south to live up north for at least one winter during their driving years - then there wouldn't be so much havoc when it snows a little bit...
      
      
      and, I just wanted to add - be careful out there!

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   habeeposted 13 years ago

   My grands are elated that they didn't have to go to school today due to the ice.

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   Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

   I remember back in the 70s (or maybe it was the 80s) there was an ice-storm in Atlanta.  My sister said she saw parked cars sliding across parking lots, due to the ice, and causing heaps of damage.  Parked cars.
   
   @Rafini - you have a point.  But I grew up in the Deep South and the East Coast, with very little/comparatively little snow, and I am more confident driving in it than some of the native Hoosiers I know who have lived here all of their lives.
   
   In the North Carolina mountains, drivers who live there get impatient with the "flatlanders" who drive more slowly than the residents can.  I expect they would like for their visitors to get more practice so the slow driving wouldn't cause so much havoc (impatient drivers passing in unsafe locations, for example).

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      Rafiniposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      true, some natives aren't very confident in snow.  but for someone who lives in an area without much snowfall, I think it'd be a good experience.  Of course, gotta make sure you've got good tires too.  I once slid into an intersection & spun around to face the direction I just came from just because the car I was driving had No Tread on the tires!  All I did was tap the brakes - didn't know the tires were bald!!

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      lorlie6posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I lived in Birmingham, Al., during that ice-storm, Aficionada, and it was crazy!  I think it was during the 80's.

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         Aficionadaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Oh wow! I was in Birmingham for a few years --- but a bit earlier than that.  I guess we missed each other. 

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            lorlie6posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I'm sorry we did miss one another!  It would be fun to actually KNOW another hubber.

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   Pandoras Boxposted 13 years ago

   It snowed in Ft. Lauderdale FL -that's south florida between miami and west palm- once when I was like 5. That was thirty (some) years ago. Don't believe it has since.

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   Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

   Oh, snow in the South is definitely rare - just not entirely impossible.  Actually, PB, that snowstorm you mention may have been the same one that iced Atlanta. I wonder....
   
   I remember when I was a child (ahem, late 50s/early 60s), I thought it was hilarious - and still do - that someone I knew had to move from Florida to Mississippi (!!) in order to see snow for the first time.  Wow, look what a few miles further north can do. LOL.
   
   Rafini, I had a similar experience of sliding, heading down an icy incline.  I saw the car in front of me do a 180, or maybe it was a 270; then I tried to inch down the same slope and landed in someone's front yard.  That time, I couldn't blame it on bald tires, though, just on the ice.

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   Stacie Lposted 13 years ago

   yeah I grew up in the northeast and am used to feet of snow..no one thinks much about driving in it..ice is another story and i do not like to ice skate in my car! LOL
   

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   melporposted 13 years ago

   The winter in the south is not that unusual. I remembered as a young boy seeing large snowfalls in Virginia just about every winter in the 1960s. It just been a while since the South has seen this kind of winter. Note, the geographical poles do not shift only the magnetic poles shift and the magnetic poles shift have absolutely nothing to do with the weather.

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    Stacie Lposted 13 years ago

    yeah I have been watching this shift news for a few years.
    heres the latest video on it
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nVD4UiOFz8

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       melporposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       StacieL, the magnetic poles are shifting and it always been shifting since the birth of the Earth due to changes in the magnum at the earth's center. The magnetic north pole use to be as far south as the equator at one point.Obviously the same thing is happening on the opposite end. Just two or three days ago the airports near the Artic circle had to change their numbers at the end of the runway to re-align them to the new location of the magnetic north pole. Thanks for the info. Note: The poles are only cold because they receive the least amount of light and heat from the sun with respect to the rest of the earth's surface.

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