The news on tv sure doesn't stop when there's a storm. I've heard channels that say, 'this is our 39th hour of coverage of the winter storm of 2004.' That was two days ago. Tuesday and Wednesday and the day before the only thing on tv was the news about how it was snowing.
Tuesday morning over where I am, it was pretty windy. It was more like a blizzard. The snow was small enough, and it was windy enough, that drifts 2 feet deep in our driveway accumulated. Sustained 30mph winds from the east kept blowing. I would watch out the kitchen window and for a while it would blow from the east, then it would die down, and a few seconds later it would blow the opposite way, completely horizontal snow. I went out for a walk then. It was 17 degrees over here, wind chill about 0 to -20. That was really cold standing in the wind. I took some pictures of the golf course, which is about 1.5 miles away.
Later that day the freezing rain started, mixed with sleet. The sleet made walking bearable. That night the ice was pretty thick, approching 1 inch. We went for a walk. You would step, and break through the ice down through 6-12 inches of snow. Again the sleet helped a lot, because instead of walking, or slipping, on a sheet of ice, you would actually be walking on tiny ice pellets before going through to the snow.
On Wednesday, it had rained enough overnight and made the ice thick enough that it would support the weight of a person. I walked through that also, but not all places would the ice hold you, especially if it was disturbed, previously stepped in or under a tree. Your feet would dig into the sleet, so it was almost like walking on snow. It was fun walking on that. Most places probably had 1-1.5" ice.
I walked by the snow plow and it sounded like a series of small explosions, because as it drove on the street the plow would break chunks of the ice, rather than snow, off and fling them into the air. We spent two hours yesterday morning trying to dig the car out to get to the store for goods. In some places there were 2 inches of ice. We got stuck at the bottom of the driveway.
Yesterday was much worse for ice though. Overnight
there was maybe .5" more of ice which coated
everything so that it was completely slick, zero
traction. My dog Max had a tough time walking around
anywhere.
It is interesting how 4-wheel drive gets you through almost anything. My dad's Jeep has 4WD, and he took us to the store. Normally with 2WD the differential tries to power both wheels even if they are spinning at different rates. If one wheel starts spinning or loses its traction, then all of the rotation and power of the differential will go to that wheel and not to the wheel that is gripping. Then you're stuck, and unless you can clear enough ice or snow away there's nothing you can do.
4WD is different though, and there are three types of 4WD. In the Jeep, which has 4HI and 4Lo, if one wheel starts slipping in the snow, there are 3 other wheels that can push the car forward. Generally one wheel won't slip for very long because at least 2 wheels will always push the car forward. So if say the front right wheel starts slipping, you might say, 'the power to the front differential will all go to the right wheel.' That's true, but if the rear tires are still making the card go forward, then the front tires should move far enough until the front tires gains traction again.
All wheel drive, 4Hi and 4Lo are terms given to how the differentials lock or unlock. 4Lo mean all wheels turn at the same rate no matter what, or the front, center and rear differentials are locked. In 2WD the front differential allows the front wheels to turn at different rates when cornering. Not in 4Lo. In 4Hi, the front and rear differentials are variable, so the wheels can act more like when they would while cornering. But since the center differential is still locked, the front wheels combined must turn at the same rate as the rear wheels combined. So it's not quite as loose as with 2WD, when the rear wheels are freewheeling, and some tire wear can occur on city streets.
AWD is pretty amazing because it allows all
differentials to be variable, all of the time. All
Subarus have this standard, which is the best method
of 4 wheel drive, and some models allow you to switch
into 4Hi. AWD allows the wheels to turn at the rate
they would in 2WD, but all wheels get power. In
addition to 4Hi, the variable viscous coupling in the
center differential allows power to vary between the
front and rear differentials. Some Volvos, Audi
Quattros, Mitsubishi Lancer series, have AWD