The Great Polar Vortex that hit Hampton Roads Virginia on January 5, 2025
The Hampton Roads area was hit with almost an inch of snow from the Polar Vortex that struck the area… This “Perfect Storm” paralyzed the area… All the schools were closed, the military bases allowed delayed reporting, all government offices were closed, and reports of Black Ice were frequently updated on the television.
Perhaps the worst part of this exceptional weather was that it caused the same delays and closures a second day… All I can say is that it was a wonder that the National Guard was not called out…
This is a video I made in the “aftermath”. I flew my drone around the neighborhood and only two children can be seen at all.
By late afternoon, the only snow that remained was in the shadow of structures (trees and buildings…)
I think that you’re confused. The polar vortex part is about cold arctic polar air descending southward to bring unseasonably cold temps to certain areas.
The thing that dropped your inch of snow was winter storm Blair, not the polar vortex. Of course, without the polar vortex, it likely would have just been a bit of rain.
That said, yes - the responses to any amount of winter weather in the south get pretty absurd. I’m out in central VA near Charlottesville. Most schools were closed all week from Blair. But we got more like 6" of snow…that then melted down to a compressed ~3" of slush…that the cold temps from the “polar vortex” promptly froze into 3" of ice. Anything that wasn’t cleared and salted immediately after the snowfall became an ice rink.
The city and suburb people in my area were all incredulous about schools being closed all week. The country folk whose roads and driveways were covered with a 1-3" thick ice sheet were less incredulous about it.
Reminds me of 4th grade, moved from Duluth to a St Louis suburb. maybe an inch of snow or 2 at most. School and everything closed. Mom had to pick me up from school. Fair sized hill on the way home, People were creeping down the hill slowly, then hitting the gas at the bottom and spinning out. Mom being from MN made it down and up the hill just fine. Not much driving in snow experience can be trouble for many.
I think you are confused. This posting was all in fun of the extreme measures that they went through in my area… Hense the remark that it was a wonder that the National Guard was not called out… You see, they also would have been on “delayed reporting too…” L o L . . .
The reports of the Black Ice were little more than warnings (you know the kind of reports that say, "the latest news is there is nothing new to report…).
The roads were clear almost immediately. The snow fell and it started melting almost immediately, it just fell faster than it could melt… I had to go out at sunrise to catch the images before it was all gone… But because the weather predicted that the temp could drop to freezing, they did it all again a second day…
Perhaps I am jaded, I grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and school was only closed when the plows could not get through and that was not very often…
I knew you were joking. We had five inches before Christmas. Then last week got two. I felt a little silly with the snow blower for two inches but it’s faster and easier than using a shovel. It’s actually been a couple or more years since we’ve had a good old fashioned storm of a foot or more.
In Louisa VA all schools and county facilities were delayed 2.5 hours until Jan. 8 even though all roads were clear by Jan. 6. The whole thing was a joke here.
Years ago, a town in central NY hired a new school superintendent who previously lived in the Alabama. One night they had 2 inches of snow, and she canceled school. She had to be told that if they closed school for every 2" snow event there’d be no school during the winter. They don’t call school unless it’s 6"+ ( and then maybe not even then). Some of those towns’ average 300"+ a year.
I know this is not car oriented but indirectly to getting your car out, you may have to remove the snow from your driveway and sidewalks. But @Bing 's remark about feeling silly about getting his snow blower out for two inches of snow is should not be taken lightly…
When I was young (I’m in my 70’s now…) my friends and I went out and shoveled driveways and sidewalks to pick up extra money and we did it all day…
The one issue is my brain does not feel like it has seen that many snowfalls and I still think like a strapping 20-something year old and shoveling snow is a lot more dangerous for us folks who remember rotary phones, how to tell time on an analog clock whether is has Roman or Arabic Numbers on it, and how to read and write in cursive…
So @Bing get that snow blower out and say to yourself, “I’m going to get my money’s worth out of it…”
No I wasn’t confused. I knew it was a joke. It just falls in line with all of the ways that people make fun of extended disruptions in more southerly areas from small amounts of weather. A lot of that is justified. Some of it is not taking all things into account. Like I said, a lot of folks around where I am were doing the AYFKM thing about school closures, but based on only their own very narrow view and experience.
I too grew up in upstate NY (tho’ not as “up” as the Adirondacks). It’s a place where a lot more investment (both public and private) goes into clearing roads, and where most people aren’t nearly as confused about how to handle things.
I don’t even have the weather channel if I wanted to watch it. So I guess other news outlets pick up on it. I think it’s a stupid thing, but it was the easiest way to refer to it.
Conversely, back in the '70s my Central NJ school district hired a new Superintendent, who came from upstate NY. A snow storm with an accumulation of 6-8 inches was predicted, and he kept the schools open. The attendance that day was so low that the district lost one day’s worth of state aid, thus making it a losing experience–literally–for the district.
While he did quickly learn that Central NJ isn’t as good with snow clearance as upstate NY is, he was fired when his 3 year contract expired, due to his other shortcomings.
Yah, my hometown is Rochester, NY. Bunch of lake effect snow. As a kid I heard the plows start when the 1st snowflake fell. They don’t mess around up there! There’d be a blizzard and I ask my Mom: Are they gonna cancel school? “No! Schools on! Get back to bed!”
I have never seen a snow blower in my life other then pictures and videos, we don’t get a lot of snow, but we just deal with it when we do, but the most we have gotten was 9" in the last 23 years, and we also don’t get much snow anyway, sometimes a couple of years without… You can always spot the northern transplants cause they got the snow shovels out, the rest of us just drive through it… A FWD will go about anywhere in snow even in 9" of snow, I used to always go out with the cars and play in the snow… From the Corolla’s/Vibe (Matrix) to the Civic to the Grand Caravan and many more, even 2WD trucks with some weight in the back, never owned snow tires, also very rare here, and yes it is very hilly and curvy here… Wife was born in DC and raised in VA until they moved here when she was 13…
Now again, we don’t get snow on top of snow on top of snow, we get snow and it all gone in a week or two… Back when even younger, I’d throw a little weight in the trunk and go out and played in the snow with the (my) fun cars… lol
BTW, I have 2 snow shovels, they work great for other things as well… lol
When I was a kid (in the days when we got much bigger and more frequent snow storms), I never actually saw a snow shovel until I was in my teens.
All of the locals used their old coal shovels on snow, and I didn’t know any better until I finally saw shovels that were designed for snow. And, in those days, snow blowers weren’t used by homeowners.
Those old coal shovels were extremely heavy, and were just not well-suited to shoveling snow.
Chickanic is on YouTube with videos and I follow her a little in her small engine shop in Arkansas. A while back she had a snow blower and said that was the first one she ever saw, but got it running anyway.
Back in the 50s only one guy in the neighborhood had a blower and he worked at the implement dealer. I remember helping dad clear the driveway after about a foot or two of snow. He showed me the method of cutting the snow into blocks to shovel it. Everybody always had a shovel in their cars. Blessed be their memory.
As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I grew up in snow country in Upstate New York and we teenager drivers often took our cars out onto the lakes to race them, and practice our slips and slides, counter steering, braking etc… And even as a teenager, we raced out studded tires on the frozen Lakes. So we learned to drive in snow early on…
But now, even with my 4-wheel drive Dodge Ram, I will not go out on the roads after a storm here is Virginia; the drivers, for the most part, have no idea how to drive, or stop, or anything else on winter roads… (and the same could be said about their driving on dry roads…).
As small kids, we also cut the snow into blockS, but for fun, to make snow forts. Much better than just piling up the snow and then digging out a trench…
They do that here a lot for big storms. So far this year you people in the south have received MORE snow than we have in southern NH. Northern NH has received a lot more snow. But we’ve been spared - until this Sunday. Expecting 6-10 in some areas.
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