Blizzard of 2011 - versus Prii

This is as far as I got today. The street a few feet away from this scene was too full of snow to get through. No biggie; work was closed anyway.

 

Same here! I had to travel to and from work these past two days. My Gen II prius is handling the ice like a champ. I have to say, as long as you have a good set of tires and good common sense, the Prius will be able to handle very nasty winter weather (up to a certain point). However, I can only imagine what a prius with a proper set of winter tires would be like. When it comes to just ice, the traction control and esp are a great asset to have. I would also say that a good set of tires made the difference for me. I would strongly recommend the Bridgestone Potenza RE960 Pole position. They have great ice traction during braking and dead stop acceleration.

 

Rare snow, sleet, freezing rain later today and tonight for Houston. Gonna be some crazy car action out there on the freeways as all the drivers start freaking out wondering what is all that white freezy coldy stuff on the road is while driving 70 mph.

Bumpercararama! :rockon:

 

Please help if you can! Does anyone know what the "B" on the gearshift means? Is that the gear that should be used in bad weather (aka snow, sleet, freezing rain, etc.)

So far my 2010 Prius has done alright in the snow . . . but I live in Missouri which hasn't had as much snow as NY, Chicago, Okla, etc.

Sign me,

Just wondering

 

"B" is for Blizzard.....heh heh
..sorry, could'nt resist.

 

Just in case you're serious asking this question, "B" is for engine braking; i.e. going down steep hills. Sort of like putting a conventional car transmission into 2nd or 1st gear.

Methinks you've not read your owner's manual. Get busy reading!

 

I heard that Houston will have rolling black/brown outs as a result of the pending ice storm. Why doesn't Houston have enough power supply? Or is this in anticipation of power lines coming down from ice?

 

All the power are being used at the super bowl?

 

I should've checked this thread from home, then I could have uploaded some pics. I'm on the NW side of Chicago, we got about 20" snow here. I was out in the neighborhood for the first few hours, dropping my son off at a sleepover etc. (no school the next day, or as it turned out, today either). Didn't have any problems driving with 8" fluffy snow on the streets in my 2006 Prius (am I allowed to post this since it's on the Gen 3 forum?)

Yesterday spent the morning shoveling out, had to shovel 6 feet into the street because they weren't plowing it all the way to the curb. My wife used the snowblower, we never had one before (I don't believe in using gasoline when muscle power will suffice, but this was a gift from a friend who moved to Atlanta last summer). Snowblower helped a lot but still took about 2 hours for our relatively modest driveway.

Drove in to work this morning, had a pretty good ridge to cross to get into the next larger street, and then some more loose snow on that road in one spot, but overall not too bad. Getting out of the car at work I noticed I had snow packed on the front of lower grill, but you just keep your momentum up in those cases and there's no problem. I am glad I replaced tires last fall, my OEM Integrities were getting kinda bald.

I'll add pictures when I get home. I also have a bit of video, but haven't finalized it yet.

 

I want snow! They say it's supposed to snow today but the weather stations keep changing every hour. You would think that they would be able to all say the same thing if they're all calculating the same math problems.

All I'm getting is little icicles...

 

I feel for you all in Chicago.

OMG, I was in Houston years ago when they had an ice storm. I was on 610 near I-10 and everyone just went nuts. It was almost like people were trying to see how far they could slide. This was in the early 80's when the 610 traffic was not like the parking lot it is these days. It was more like 90 mph all lanes 24x7 and don't get in my way.

When the ice hit, everyone just freaked out. It was humorous and sad in a way but we got the heck out of town as quick as we could.

 

Just got back from digging out my parents at their rural location about 1 hour from here. They have about 1.5 inches of ice with 15 inches of snow on top. The Prius did great and the traction control got a workout on the steep icy hills.

Interstate 40 still has a lot of abandoned cars over the 60 miles we drove. The snow covered areas are in good shape. The state has plowed everything multiple times but now they have to tow all the abandoned vehicles/18 wheelers to get rid of the remanding drifts.

Their driveway is 35 yards long so after that much shoveling, I'm ready for a hand full of vitamin C, some Alleve, and a hot shower.

 

Got a good 14 inches of snow in Tulsa. No ice though. It's hard to get an exact depth due to all the drifting. I used the snowblower (everyone told me I'd never use) again. 14 inches is more than our annual average. It got down to -6 this morning. Our northeastern suburb, Owasso, got 18 inches..

The Prius rode it out in the garage (and it's still there). Drove to work today in my other "car", a Chevy crew cab diesel 4x4. I'm in no mood to prevent global warming today.

 

Not sure what part of Louisiana you're from, but I bet that's pretty rare!

Here's what my Prius saw when I opened the garage door yesterday morning.


Our driveway viewed from the street (well, almost, our driveway is 6 feet longer now, because they haven't plowed the streets all the way to the curb). You can see the wind caused good drifts (about 3.5 feet, 1 meter), but even the lowest part is over a foot deep:


The neighbors aren't getting out anytime soon:

 

I left my 2010 Prius II in the garage; and drove my 2010 Subaru Forester through the Blizzard of 2011 in and around Rockford, Il. ...only got 23mpg. In Rockford we only have three seasons: July, August, and Winter.

 

It's snowing here again today. Looks like another 1 or 2 inch accumulation on top of the 12 inches that's already here. This morning they're telling us we're going to get hammered again with a big high accumulation snow storm Tuesday & Wednesday.

 

Pitiful ice storm last night in Houston and no snow so far, bummer. Some freeways closed this morning, heavy ice on overpasses, but surface streets fine. Was going to try driving up the parking lot ramp to the roof as it has a nice 1/4" sheet of ice on it, but I think it would be a lost cause with the Yokohama tires, might get a foot up the ice, maybe.

 

Yet we warmed up from 0 F to +35 F Thursday, had freezing rain overnight, and Friday morning the roads were skating rinks.

It always amuses me how the 4x4 crowd thinks their vehicle has magic traction capabilities on glare ice. Well, mine does, but that is strictly due to the four factory studded Nokian winter tires







The only safe way to get around on glare ice is to have FOUR studded snow tires

 

Had no trouble in Ohio with the help of my Michelin ice-x snow tires on my Gen iii.

 

As promised, here's my video. Not too much of the Prius except in the beginning. I don't like how YouTube apparently does some compression of it's own, so the low-contrast areas of blowing snow are almost indecipherable. I could trying posting the video somewhere else and see what does for the image quality, but for now, here it is: