Snowmageddon 2014 is a Storm I will never ever forget. . The January 28, 2014 snowstorm crippled metro Atlanta, Birmingham, and Much of Georgia and Alabama for almost a week and caused extreme chaos on both city's main interstates and highways including I-285, I-20, Hwy 280, Hwy 78, I-75, I-85, I-185, I-459, I-59, and I-65. Hundreds if not thousands, of vehicles were left stranded after the storm created massive gridlock on the roads. Many Atlanta residents described the aftermath as the opening scene from The Walking Dead! Temperatures had reached the 60s a few days prior to the event, and the ground was relatively warm, but a brutally cold Arctic airmass rolled in January 27. When light snow started on Tuesday morning January 28, there was some initial melting due to the warm ground, immediately followed by a "flash freeze" (surface temperatures hovered around 20 to 25 degrees all day.) that put down a base of ice on all roads across North/Central Georgia and Alabama. Which, in turn, brought the travel impact you would expect with a serious ice storm. There was light snow in the forecast the day, though the timpact forecast was off. Major travel impacts were not expected according to the forecast days in advance and even the day before. Thousands of people were stranded on roadways and Interstates all across Georgia and Alabama. In the end, Alabama State Troopers responded to 731 vehichle accidents across the state. Georgia Emergency Officials responded to nearly 1,500 accidents. There were nine deaths in Alabama due to the icy road conditions. MY STORY/EXPERIENCES FROM THE STORM: I was in middle school at the time back then of course I didn't have the resources and technology to track the weather and monitor the weather like I do today. I had a bad feeling the morning of the event something was not right I felt as if something big was going to happen by lunch time I looked outside the door and it was pouring snow. I notified my parents they needed to get to the school to pick me up before the roads got too bad I wasn't aware at that time how bad the roads already were because the temperature had dropped so rapidly. I ended up leaving school the roads were very icy. People were sliding down the hill in front of the school the roads were a mess. We ended up calling 911 because so many were crashing into trees and ditches, and cars were sliding into each other our county dispatcher dispatched us from the Douglas County 911 system to Cobb. Douglas 911 was full of calls and couldn't handle anymore at the time. We notified them of the situation in that particular area. As we continued to try to make it towards home I realized more and more the impact and chaos the storm was causing. We made it probably 2 miles closer to home sliding a bit here and there until we were on the road we lived on then we slid sideways into a ditch on a hill. I could see cars behind us coming over the hill they were sliding uncontrollably down the hill thankfully we were to the right of most of the cars and trucks coming down the hill. I continued to see more crashing into trees and on the otherside of the road a mini van went right into a tree and completely busted the windshield and front end of the vehichle. The best way I can describe that day it was like something you would see on tv or a movie! I did a lot of praying that day. We made it home a commute that normally takes about 20 minutes took about 2 hours that day. I was thankful to be home but I knew there were many that was less fortunate. By the end of the storm over a Dozen people died. There were thousands of wrecked cars and drivers stranded on the interstates overnight some for several days and nights. The national guard was deployed. WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE STORM: Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal announced after the storm the formation of a task force that includes various state and local officials, meteorologists and business leaders charged with making recommendations to improve the state’s response to recent weather events. Part of the state’s revised response plan calls for Georgia Emergency Management Agency officials to consult with local meteorologists on weather patterns. The task force includes officials from several state agencies — including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Safety — leaders of local school districts and police departments, meteorologists from several Atlanta television stations and more. Brine since the storm had turned out to be a very cost effective and efficient solution to treating area roadways. The brine solution is a water/salt mixture containing 23 percent salt. Approximately two pounds of salt is added to each gallon of water to create the brine solution. The benefits of the brine are three-fold. First, it is cheaper than a strictly rock, sand combination. Secondly, those remedies tend to leave the pavement rather quickly, while the brine solution (barring rain) stays on the roads longer. Lastly, it does a better job overall than the previous treatments. One pound of salt can melt 48 pounds of ice in 30 degree weather. According to the DOT, there have been instances of 10 degree weather where the roads did not freeze over because of the brine. Additionally, the 23 percent brine mixture that the DOT uses will not freeze until the temperature hits negative six degrees. The DOT keeps a large amount of brine on hand for winter weather situations like last week. The agency can hold 150,000 gallons of brine in its storage tanks and another 50,000 gallons in the brine trucks, giving the DOT a maximum capacity of 200,000 gallons of brine. To treat all the roads serviced by the DOT in the metro Atlanta area, it takes approximately 90,000 gallons. To replenish the supply, the DOT can manufacture about 3,500 gallons of brine solution per hour. Since the storm also I have my Weather Page of course where you are probably reading this from Brandon's 365 Weather, Traffic, And More, My Website, and Several sources for reporting and tracking Important Weather. No Matter The Weather I've Got You Covered!
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