Danger possible in New England !!

If it makes landfall, the danger is going to stretch from the New England area all the way through the Great Lakes region. Big low pressure area coming up the coast, and a big high pressure area moving down the Midwest from Canada means really big winds all along the intersection of the two pressure areas. And the two areas look like they will be meeting along the Appalachian Mountains in central PA. The news was talking winds up to 60-85 mph. We know 60 mph winds are enough to tip a truck onto its side. 85mph winds or higher can roll a truck completely over. My best advice is to avoid the area completely (I'm parking the Jimmy in the garage until everything settles down). If you can't due to "forced dispatch", be extremely careful rolling through.

I live in NW PA, and I'm already seeing increased wind at higher elevations from the high pressure system coming out of Canada. No where near dangerous yet, but a possible harbinger of what is to come.

Its that time of year, kiddies. Crappy weather and dangerous road conditions abound.

 

I'm gonna take a WAG (wildassed guess, a technical term) that you've been across I-90 in 'inclement weather' here in the lovely Keystone state. Or perhaps rolled I-80 in some of our lovely ice storms?

 

You presume Pennsylvania can afford "pretreat" in the first place. We can't. Add in the fact there is very little truck parking outside of the truckstops along I-80 (and a few rest areas), how quickly the road conditions can deteriorate, and the number of student drivers or first year rookies running through and you have a recipe for absolute disaster.

There have been times when I've thought running I-80 through PA was more knuckle-whitening than running the Rockies. At least the chain laws out west give plenty of drivers a "company acceptable" reason to park the truck. PA doesn't have chain laws, or the steep grades on I-80 that would justify chains. And the State Police only close the interstate in the most extreme cases. So its up to the driver to make the decision to push on or not, and we ALL know how grateful dispatch is when we choose safety over revenue, don't we?

Back when I was a young driver, I was told by one company I drove for that if the highway was open, I was required to run no matter what. This was one of the many companies that felt there was no such thing as running out of hours as long as we, the drivers, had fresh logbooks on the truck. I'm sure this attitude has been slightly adjusted these days (read: Company says one thing, dispatch says something else.) I'm also sure I'll be seeing green and purple pigs flying south for the winter any day now. I'm sure of many things that may or may not be true.

 

Looks like New Yawk will be hit by the fist of a angry storm.