If you never lived where it snows and were moving North to where it does snow, what would you have liked to have known? What would you do to prepare?
Keep one of those brush/scraper things in your car.
Clean the snow off your car before driving.
CLEAN THE SNOW OFF YOUR CAR BEFORE DRIVING
All of it
If it is going to be a lot of snow, don’t wait until it is over before you start digging out.
Salt/pet friendly ice melt for your walkways
Have a snow blower? Don’t wait until the day before to see if it still runs. Make sure you have gas for it
Slow drip on a faucet to prevent pipes from bursting
I’d add that, while not strictly required, one of those total car snow covers really does come in handy: https://www.amazon.ca/kayme-Waterproof-Protection-Automobiles-Universal/dp/B09FLKGLCW
Seriously, clearing snow isn’t just for your visibility. It’s illegal here (and presumably other places) to leave any snow at all on your car because it will come off and is very likely to affect the visibility of another driver at high speeds.
Have a snow blower? Don’t wait until the day before to see if it still runs. Make sure you have gas for it
That reminds me, I should set a reminder to charge the batteries for mine.
Also your car needs real winter tires, preferably studded.
Many people mentioned clearing ALL the snow off your car, but I didn’t see people mentioning why. Here are some videos to elaborate how terrifying and dangerous it can be when people don’t do that.
It takes a lot of energy to clear the car off, but it’s critical. Don’t be the person that harms someone else just to save a bit of time and effort.
I moved to a snow city for the first time well into adulthood.
The big thing I have for you is that walking on snow is awesome for like two hours and then it’s constantly threatening to kill you. Slippery sludge or ice is the worst feeling in the universe and all the locals will just strut right over it like it’s nothing while you’re fighting for your life.
Just buy good shoes and plant your feet vertically, no sliding motions.
Planting one’s feet vertically is a skill that takes a while to develop.
I feel comfortable walking on ice, but I’ve had it a few times that people drove past me on road bikes.
A lot of people have pretty well covered how to drive in snow and ice, but here’s a little secret they won’t tell you:
- Over the summer, the locals forgot how to drive on snow, too.
The first big snow will bring the car fairy to sprinkle wrecked cars along the side of the road. Most of these are given by people with plenty of experience driving on snow.
Stay home that first time. If you absolutely must drive, be the one going too slowly. After that, you can kind of do as the Romans do.
Mittens are warmer than gloves.
Winter shoes must fit a woolen sock and not be too tight, otherwise the insulation gets compressed and doesn’t work.
Better to wear many layers rather than just one layer of super thick clothing
I actually like my winter boots to be slightly loose too. I get cold toes easily, but if there’s a little extra room in my boots I find that every step moves air around inside the boot so my toebox doesn’t get isolated.
Stopping takes longer. Drive slower; leave more space to stop.
You’d think it’s common sense, but a huge number of the accidents in winter are because people drive like idiots.
Conditions change rapidly too. A cloud can cause everything to ice over instantly. You might have stopped fine every other time, but it takes a single unexpected slide to change lives forever.
There’s more to know if you plan to drive a car.
Four-wheel drive helps to accelerate in icy conditions, it does not help braking.
Make slow, careful changes when it’s snowy or icy. Slow down more than you normally would to take a turn. Give yourself triple the distance to slow to a stop. Don’t turn hard.
Use windshield wiper fluid appropriate for freezing temperatures.
Put any rage or impatience aside and get to where you’re going safely.
If you live in a place that clears the streets and you don’t have to go anywhere, consider staying put. Wait a couple hours until the streets are cleared.
If you’ll be driving somewhere more remote, have clothes and boots appropriate for the weather in case your car breaks down or gets stuck and you have to walk. I also keep a jug of water, flashlight, and blanket/sleeping bag in my trunk during winter for this reason.
Ask a local to show you some of their winter clothes or to take you winter clothes shopping. Your warmest clothes right now are not warm enough. Capacitive touch gloves will let you use your phone.
If you have a car, get a snow brush and ice scraper (for windshield and windows). There is winter windshield fluid, get and use it when it’s snowing. Get winter tires, it makes a difference. Insurance companies give a discount for having them. If there’s snow on the road, go slower than you think you should, and start braking at least twice as early as when it’s dry. Accelerate and brake slowly. If your car is sliding on ice, resist the temptation to keep pressing your brakes, try your best to steer the slide instead.
If your car gets stuck in snow and you need to run it to keep it warm, make sure the tail pipe is well clear of snow (carbon monoxide). Keep an emergency blanket, hat, gloves in the car in case of breakdown. If the wheels are stuck in a snowbank (just spinning in place), some sand or non-clumping cat litter can give you traction. You can sacrifice your floor mats for this, too.
If you walk instead of drive, consider crampons for your boots for if it gets icy out.
There’s different textures and density to snow. Wet snow is dense and heavy, dry snow is light and fluffy. Shoveling can be very different depending on the snow. Lift/push with your legs, now with your arms or back. Take breaks if needed.
If you wear glasses, they will fog up when you go from outside to inside. Sorry. You could get anti-fog stuff used for snow and ski goggles, but most normal people just wait for them to warm up.
A scarf makes a big difference.
Wool can keep you warm even when wet.
Be prepared for power outages especially if the area does not bury power lines. Heavy snow, or worse, ice, can make tree branches heavy and fall and snap power lines. If this happens, be mindful of carbon monoxide. People, families have died trying to keep warm by running generators, stoves, etc indoors without proper ventilation.
Snow reflects sunlight; wear sunglasses if the sun is out and there’s snow on the ground.
Go outside and listen when the snow is falling. It makes everything quieter and it’s really ice to hear.
Snow that’s warmed slightly then frozen again is crunchy and fun to walk on.
If you’re north enough, the sunlight will not be sufficient for creating vitamin D. (Plus you’ll probably be indoors more, less daylight in general.) Consider a supplement.
Consider a SAD light if lack of daylight affects your moods.
Layer your clothing.
An undershirt + a shirt + sweater + jacket + a shell is a really warm combination. On your legs, long johns + pajama pants + regular pants is great.
As the seasons change, you can omit items to get just the right temperature.
No matter how comfortable you get driving in the snow, always drive slow.
I don’t care if you got four wheel drive chains and snow tires, drive like 5 10 15 miles an hour.
Also, if you start to skid, don’t slam on the brakes.
If it is a long skid and you have time to react, drop your vehicle down into low gear (which should not be very difficult because you’ve been driving slow right?) and let off the accelerator and allow the resistance of the drivetrain to slow you down.
If you feel yourself decelerating you can try tapping the brakes but if you do not immediately regain traction and slow back down, let off the brake.
When you are in a skidding situation, do not White knuckle your steering wheel. Especially when you are turning against the skid, suddenly regaining traction with your tires at an extreme angle can put you into an entirely new skid. You need to be prepared to let go of the steering wheel as soon as you have traction if need be.
Finally, practice.
When there is a gentle snow, which there often is prior to large snows, take your car out and drive it around. Find out how your car reacts in the snow and get a little bit of practice with the small skids that you might encounter on the roads that you travel.
If you live up or down a large Hill, find out if there are alternative routes that you can take to get to your destination. If there is no way to get to your house without either going up or coming down a large hill, identify places where you can safely park your car away from the hill and walk to your home.
Finding that information out beforehand will save you a lot of hassle in the event of a winter storm.
I’ll finish that up with saying, if you expect yourself to be in severe winter weather, it is a good idea to get some chains and some traction devices and some blankets and some water and store them in the trunk of your car during the winter season.
That way, if you are caught unaware’s, you will be prepared.
All of my advice are for severe places like Wisconsin. If you live in a place where the snow is well managed that might be Overkill.
I moved to Washington State and got caught in a blizzard in an old beat-up pickup truck.
Part of my route to get home required that I go down a Long Hill, so I slowed to 5 miles an hour and dropped my vehicle in to low gear and made it about 20 ft down the hill before I lost traction.
As I’m slowly uncontrollably skiing down the hill on a bed of snow, to my left and to my right I am passing by row after row after row of vehicles that had been abandoned by their drivers unable to traverse this road.
It was a good day to wear brown pants
However, by steering against the skid and not white knuckling and not riding my brakes and keeping the vehicle in its low drive I was able to safely ski down the road that I had found myself on and make it to the other side.
I was able to drive home that day by following my own advice.
If something like that happens to you, I hope you do the same.
Drive slowly on snow. 90% of driving works just fine so long as you go slow. And that doesn’t mean 35 in a 40 zone. That means 10 in a 40 zone.
Drive super fucking slow on snow, and you’ll be fine.
People who come from warmer climates to snow always fuck this up, and it’s so simple. I think there’s a pride thing involved. So just get over your “I can do this” pride, and drive ultra slow.
At least at first. You can speed up a little once you get a sense of what makes the car slide, but to start with just go ultra ultra slow.
There is no such thing as good winter drivers and bad winter drivers. There is only those with snow tires and those without.
Best: 4 snows on awd and 2-4 water softener bags of salt in trunk for weight and getting unstuck.
2nd best: 4 snow on awd
3rd best: 2 snow on front wheel drive with 4 salt bags in trunk/bed.
4th best: awd no snows but good tread
Worst: fuckin everything else.
Household tips: insulate your pipes if in unfinished basement or have a heater running for really cold days or if the pipes will not have water FLOWING/RUNNING/MOVING thru pipes i.e. you go on vacation.
Plastic wrap your windows every fall. It sucks but helps a ton keeping heat in and costs down.
Spend the most money on gloves, hats and boots. Things that can’t be layered and get rhe coldest.
Hot hands/heat pouches are life savers for winter sports/sporting events/hunting/camping. They make them in foot shaped stick on versions for boots, put one in each of your pants pockets and one each in your coat pockets.
Keep spare salt, shovel, gloves, hat, blanket, granola bars and water in your car for when you WILL go off the road and need to wait for AAA.
Don’t fuck around with ice. Don’t try and walk across it without losing balance. Dont try and walk across it because you think it’s thick enough to hold you. If you are going on ice over water DONOT until you have drilled to check thickness or it is a large bodybif water that publishes the ice thickness.
Yes, snowmobiles can hydroplane across bodies of water.
Yes, skiis and snowboards can skate across bodies of water.
DO FUCKING NOT FUCKING TRY AND FUCKING HYDRO-FUCKING-PLANE OR SKI/SNOWBOARD ACCROSS ANY BODIES OF WATER.
There is no such thing as good winter drivers and bad winter drivers. There is only those with snow tires and those without.
I don’t agree with that. Good tools are useless in the hands of the ignorant. Somebody can have the best winter tires ever engineered, but if they stop and turn on ice like they would do on perfect pavement on the dryest summer days, then they’re fucked and they’re a cocky jackass. A good driver will know the limits of their tires, whatever they are.
True, it follows that having this knowledge will generally convince good drivers to get better tires, but it’s not like buying fancy new rubber will turn you into Ken Block (rip).
TL;DR: Get the winter tires, they’re great and worth it. But PLEASE for the love of god take the time to learn how to fucking drive on snow and ice or you’ll be stuck in the medium with the rest of them, because even with the best winter tires it’s NOT the same physics
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard. The part about there not being good or bad winter drivers.
Honestly. Most of your tips sounds what someone says that was a tourist somewhere cold once in their life and now pretends to know what they’re talking about.
Sincerely. Someone born and raised in the north.
Right. Vancouver drivers are terrible in the snow (if the snow sticks that year, and bad all year round anyway). Drivers from Saskatchewan or North Ontario scoff at whatever we get over here!
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You don’t need snow tires in Chicago. The streets are very well plowed and salted. Just take it slow.
Actually the best tires of all: stay the fuck home where it’s nice and warm and work online in your socks and bathrobe.
Thank you very much!
Cotton absorbs water. If you wear cotton clothing, and it gets wet from sweat or from snow melting on you, or just water from anywhere, your cotton clothing will be cold. So dont wear jeans in the snow. Dont wear cotton socks. Cotton long underwear is fine under you pants if you’re not going to be in the snow. But silk or synthetic fibers are a must for sledding, or skiing or snowshoeing or really anything you might want to do to play or excercise in the snow.
I lived in colorado where the snow was very dry. When it snowed i would rush outside and use a hand plow to clear my walkways before anyone could step on it. Some of my neighbors would use leaf blowers. If the morning walkers crunched the snow before i could shovel it, the sidewalk would have boot shaped icebergs frozen all over it until we got enough sun to melt it off.
This would drive me nuts so i would work to get everything cleared off as soon as it stopped snowing
This.
DO NIT WALK/COMPACT YOUR REGULAR PATHS BEFORE SHOVELLING! SHOVEL THEM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
If you have compacted snow you will have to stab it top down with a round end steel shovel crcking apart 10cm(4") sections the whole way.
Spent the better part of last winter fixing the mistake i made in my first week of snow. (125m long path).
If you have wood oven heating then keep your wood stock close to home. My shed is 30m away and it gets real old hauling across every few days. I also use a plastic bin to carry it now. A lot easier than a wheelbarrow as you can walk right into your house and to your inside wood shelf.
Boot chains are really great, not the spikes, chains. Especially if you have a dog that gets excited and pulls.
If you have a long driveway consider a plowing service, your local farmer will probably do it cheaper(than you think) than a commercial service if you’re rural.
Stock up on food/water.
Otherwise there’s not much to it.
Freezing cold is +3C/-6C, then -18C and below. The -6C/-18C range is actually very comfortable.
Winter Cycling Tips:
Studded tires make riding a bicycle on ice much safer. The front one insures you won’t fall on your face, the rear one helps give you enough traction to move forward.
Full coverage fenders will keep your bike significantly cleaner, which means it corrode far less. And they keep snow/slush/water from flying up at you too.
Cold drains batteries much quicker. Consider getting a dynamo lighting setup so you don’t have to rely on batteries.
Your body generates a significant amount of heat while cycling, so it is best to dress so you will be somewhat cold the first mile or two, then you are more likely to be comfortable for the rest of the ride.
If you get an office job find out what the work policy is on snow days. Plenty of employers will let you work from home without question even if it’s a job where you would normally go in. For me any place that doesn’t would get a hard no. It means they DGAF about you.
