APS VA Snow Day Projection

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing that would help considerably is much more aggressive salting before during and after the event. This area doesn’t do that.

Because 80% of the time we have rain which washes it all to the Bay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that would help considerably is much more aggressive salting before during and after the event. This area doesn’t do that.

Because 80% of the time we have rain which washes it all to the Bay.

Yes, I understand the reason we don't use the salt. This stuff is a tradeoff. Possibly when the severity of the event is known and predicted well ahead of time (as this was) and the tricky conditions are known well ahead of time in terms of removal (as this was) well maybe they make a different calculation. Or maybe not.

My thought is only I don't think discussion should be shouted down and nobody is supposed to ask questions or have any critical thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Practical question. They were allowing sports practices and after school activities last week. Will they tomorrow too?

Yes

Where did you see this? Usually APS’s message mentions it one way or the other, but I couldn’t find it this time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing that would help considerably is much more aggressive salting before during and after the event. This area doesn’t do that.

It was too cold for salt to do much and it's terrible for the environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was an epic weather event. Show some grace.

We have (or some of us), all week. But my kid played 3 sports games this weekend in APS buildings, so it was okay enough for that, and there's no magical reason to believe the outdoor conditions are going to change for the next several days. This has been an entirely foreseeable situation (as far as melting conditions, or lack thereof) that they've made little attempt to address, and now we're a week+ into it.

They did foresee it. We have 13 snow days in the calendar.

And apparently we’re going to use them all for this storm, even though more snow is in the forecast.

Also, can someone explain to me APS snow day math? Are we really counting a few extra minutes at the end of each day toward our snow day allotment?

Schools in VA must have 180 days OR 990 hours per school year. APS insists on doing both, but they have also lengthened the school day in recent years, so they have enough extra hours that kids can be out for 13 school days without falling below the 990 hour requirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that would help considerably is much more aggressive salting before during and after the event. This area doesn’t do that.

Because 80% of the time we have rain which washes it all to the Bay.

Yes, I understand the reason we don't use the salt. This stuff is a tradeoff. Possibly when the severity of the event is known and predicted well ahead of time (as this was) and the tricky conditions are known well ahead of time in terms of removal (as this was) well maybe they make a different calculation. Or maybe not.

My thought is only I don't think discussion should be shouted down and nobody is supposed to ask questions or have any critical thought.

Salting the roads in advance only works in certain circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that would help considerably is much more aggressive salting before during and after the event. This area doesn’t do that.

Because 80% of the time we have rain which washes it all to the Bay.

Yes, I understand the reason we don't use the salt. This stuff is a tradeoff. Possibly when the severity of the event is known and predicted well ahead of time (as this was) and the tricky conditions are known well ahead of time in terms of removal (as this was) well maybe they make a different calculation. Or maybe not.

My thought is only I don't think discussion should be shouted down and nobody is supposed to ask questions or have any critical thought.

Salting the roads in advance only works in certain circumstances.

More aggressive salting would have helped overall in this situation. But they also have to have the salt, somewhere to store the salt, and the proper vehicles to dump the salt.

[Anonymous]

You could go help clear the lots instead of armchair quarterbacking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could go help clear the lots instead of armchair quarterbacking.

#dumb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love my trash to get picked up, too, but that’s the nature of this storm.

Good news. Unlike schools, trash pickup back to regular schedule this week.

Not true. Arlington limited pick up to trash and recycling. Not green cans

This was an extraordinary weather event. Ice and terribly low temps. It isn’t snow removal but ice block removal.

Warm up starts Tuesday.

Ease up. No city could have handled this.

This is absurd. Many cities handle this all the time. People should be respectful when discussing this, but it's not "hysterical" to point out there are some lessons learned. In the era of climate change, we're going to get more extreme weather. Time to do some thinking on how to better manage these situations. There are so many things we could be doing better and planning for ahead of time. Stating that your government should do this type of review and asking questions and pointing out problems is normal.

Liar.

Some of you have clearly never lived anywhere with actual snow and ice and cold conditions. You think this type of event has never occurred in the history of the world or something? Totally laughable.

I grew up in upstate NY.

Many cities, especially those in the south, do not "handle" this type of icy, packed snow "all of the time". I've lived through several big blizzards and none were as challenging to remove as this. Snowblowers only would have helped for the initial snowfall. Temps were too low to salt roads in advance. It's tough to get heavy equipment into narrow, car-lined neighborhood streets.

The situation sucks. People being irrational dickheads about it aren't helping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that would help considerably is much more aggressive salting before during and after the event. This area doesn’t do that.

Because 80% of the time we have rain which washes it all to the Bay.

Yes, I understand the reason we don't use the salt. This stuff is a tradeoff. Possibly when the severity of the event is known and predicted well ahead of time (as this was) and the tricky conditions are known well ahead of time in terms of removal (as this was) well maybe they make a different calculation. Or maybe not.

My thought is only I don't think discussion should be shouted down and nobody is supposed to ask questions or have any critical thought.

Salting the roads in advance only works in certain circumstances.

More aggressive salting would have helped overall in this situation. But they also have to have the salt, somewhere to store the salt, and the proper vehicles to dump the salt.

Temps were too low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love my trash to get picked up, too, but that’s the nature of this storm.

Good news. Unlike schools, trash pickup back to regular schedule this week.

Not true. Arlington limited pick up to trash and recycling. Not green cans

This was an extraordinary weather event. Ice and terribly low temps. It isn’t snow removal but ice block removal.

Warm up starts Tuesday.

Ease up. No city could have handled this.

This is absurd. Many cities handle this all the time. People should be respectful when discussing this, but it's not "hysterical" to point out there are some lessons learned. In the era of climate change, we're going to get more extreme weather. Time to do some thinking on how to better manage these situations. There are so many things we could be doing better and planning for ahead of time. Stating that your government should do this type of review and asking questions and pointing out problems is normal.

Liar.

Some of you have clearly never lived anywhere with actual snow and ice and cold conditions. You think this type of event has never occurred in the history of the world or something? Totally laughable.

I grew up in upstate NY.

Many cities, especially those in the south, do not "handle" this type of icy, packed snow "all of the time". I've lived through several big blizzards and none were as challenging to remove as this. Snowblowers only would have helped for the initial snowfall. Temps were too low to salt roads in advance. It's tough to get heavy equipment into narrow, car-lined neighborhood streets.

The situation sucks. People being irrational dickheads about it aren't helping.

Up north they manage to clear the streets more quickly, before the precipitation has a chance to harden for days. It wasn't that hard to get this stuff off the roads on Sunday or even Monday. We did our cars and sidewalks and it wasn't terrible. But now it's hardened and is so so so much harder to remove.

APS literally had janitors with plastic snow shovels clearing schools. There's no way that's sufficient. Once the stuff is solid, you need heavy plows and bobcats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d love my trash to get picked up, too, but that’s the nature of this storm.

Good news. Unlike schools, trash pickup back to regular schedule this week.

Not true. Arlington limited pick up to trash and recycling. Not green cans

This was an extraordinary weather event. Ice and terribly low temps. It isn’t snow removal but ice block removal.

Warm up starts Tuesday.

Ease up. No city could have handled this.

This is absurd. Many cities handle this all the time. People should be respectful when discussing this, but it's not "hysterical" to point out there are some lessons learned. In the era of climate change, we're going to get more extreme weather. Time to do some thinking on how to better manage these situations. There are so many things we could be doing better and planning for ahead of time. Stating that your government should do this type of review and asking questions and pointing out problems is normal.

Liar.

Some of you have clearly never lived anywhere with actual snow and ice and cold conditions. You think this type of event has never occurred in the history of the world or something? Totally laughable.

I grew up in upstate NY.

Many cities, especially those in the south, do not "handle" this type of icy, packed snow "all of the time". I've lived through several big blizzards and none were as challenging to remove as this. Snowblowers only would have helped for the initial snowfall. Temps were too low to salt roads in advance. It's tough to get heavy equipment into narrow, car-lined neighborhood streets.

The situation sucks. People being irrational dickheads about it aren't helping.

If we are pulling out our credentials, I grew up in western NY and of course southern cities don't deal with this. However, I've now lived in DC for a long time and this type of particular snow situation...snow on a line with rain/ice and follow up icy conditions...is not terribly uncommon as temps are more on the line here. Extended closures are not uncommon. I think the point is there are certainly ways to deal with this more effectively and gee why don't we explore them. Constructive ideas could include alternate bus routes mapped out for consolidated bus stops with cleared waiting areas. Really, anything. Let's just do anything other than sitting around saying it's too hard. Next winter or sadly probably this winter, going to be same story.

[Anonymous]

For those who commuted to work this morning, how was traffic in and around Arlington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing that would help considerably is much more aggressive salting before during and after the event. This area doesn’t do that.

Because 80% of the time we have rain which washes it all to the Bay.

Yes, I understand the reason we don't use the salt. This stuff is a tradeoff. Possibly when the severity of the event is known and predicted well ahead of time (as this was) and the tricky conditions are known well ahead of time in terms of removal (as this was) well maybe they make a different calculation. Or maybe not.

My thought is only I don't think discussion should be shouted down and nobody is supposed to ask questions or have any critical thought.

Salting the roads in advance only works in certain circumstances.

More aggressive salting would have helped overall in this situation. But they also have to have the salt, somewhere to store the salt, and the proper vehicles to dump the salt.

Temps were too low.

There are products beyond rock salt that can push effectiveness into colder temps. It's silly to debate this just google the topic if interested. You really think some of these colder areas in the US do not face this issue and have solutions? Of course they do.