Jonathan Hunter @chattwjonathan@qoto.org

I have a truck stuck in Winner, South Dakota off U.S. 183 - currently on his way to Reno, NV and started in Wilkes-Barre PA. Been stuck in blizzard conditions the last 2 days.

How did he get there you might ask? GPS of course.

Why would a Truck GPS ever lead him to Winner SD when I-80 runs pretty much straight between the two?

He started off normally on the trip on I-80, but I-80 became closed Sunday night due to Blizzard conditions in Wyoming and Nebraska. This was put into the GPS's calculations, so it rerouted him up I-90 from Chicago to head around it.

BUT by the time, he got to I-90 in Minnesota, that road was closed ahead in South Dakota due to the same blizzard conditions.

So the GPS if a genius and takes this in to account & it shows that SD-14/U.S. 183 heading west across southern South Dakota is open and routes them that way!

Of course, the GPS is not accounting for the fact that it's ALL blizzard and now they are on a lesser road with worse road care and lesser services. And here they sit with everything closed and no fuel. Perfect no notes.

I'm not going to tell you that I don't blame my folks for not looking at any weather or deciding that this was a good idea to get in so deep. But it's also a company approved device. We tell people to check it out and that those roads are supposed to be safe. This is just endlessly stupid in multiples ways.

#Weather #Trucking #Blizzard #gps #southdakota

Introduced the kids to Alvin & the Chipmunks Christmas song, and they're so adorable - they love it.

And yes, if you're in the eastern U.S. - almost anywhere - I have seen at least 1 model run where you have snow on the ground on Christmas!

I'm not going to publish those, because they're not consistent and should not be considered accurate.

This is the "precision vs accuracy" illustrated in model form. The long weather models provide some precise outputs for where and when it might rain or snow - but they are not accurate at that level.

#weather #whitechristmas

All the signals are aligning to tell us with a higher degree of certainty than usual that the eastern half of the U.S will be cold for Christmas.

This will create the potential setup of a white Christmas in unusual places, as well as in the Midwest. But none of these are a guarantee.

If you see people posting that with certainty this far out, ignore it, but keep an eye out as this may affect a lot of Christmas travel!

#weather #christmas #whitechristmas

What causes a can of beer to feel over-pressured?

I recently bought a 6 pack of Five Wits Daydream and that's the only impression I get. Carbonation overwhelms every sip.

I like their beer on tap, but this can was a miss.

There are going to be a lot of travel trouble spots out west today, but I-80 in Wyoming will be the worst of them starting this afternoon/evening.

The snow totals aren't crazy like Donner Pass this weekend - close to 12" on I-80's higher levels, but the winds that come in afterwards are going to be 60mph+....all the way through early Thursday.

Go around. Don't get stuck on I-80 at Elk Mountain or Sherman Pass.

#RoadWeather #ElkMountain #WYwx #Weather

Eternal Flame of the Cherokee Nation

Happy Thanksgiving from Red Clay State Historical Park in Tennessee.

Red Clay is the starting point of the Trail of Tears.

#Thanksgiving #cherokee

Good morning for your #RoadWeather forecast.

Yes, even with 77in (1.96m!) of snow measured in Orchard Park NY over the weekend the interstates are all open across the US.

Only hiccups to this week's travel forecast will be some potential freezing rain w/ mountains snow on I-90 in Washington, with snow moving down I-84 into Oregon and Idaho Wednesday for a couple of inches there, too.

Western New York pictures from Twitter - not my own.