Killer Weather

Stay Safe on the Road—No Matter How Bad the Weather Is

Let’s face it… The safer you drive the easier it will be to find cheap car insurance quotes. Safe drivers with no tickets get far lower insurance premiums than people who drive around like a demon from hell.

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful

And so is being behind the wheel in bad weather. Heavy rains can produce flooding situations that can rise up out of nowhere. If you can slow down in time, going through water slowly is your best bet. Try to judge how high the water is however, because you may not want to go through it at all. Turning around and completely avoiding it may be your best option.

Driving In Snow Is Treacherous

Snow and ice is probably the worst case scenario when it comes to driving. Black ice in particular is something that you never notice until it’s too late. Once it’s too late you basically have to ride it out. Cars with anti lock brakes do the brake pumping for you; in older cars you may have to do it yourself. Experts tell you to turn into a spin, but black ice is something that no one can really prepare for or successfully deal with. I have in fact lost friends to black ice situations.
The best way to drive safe in bad weather… Don’t drive.

Violent Weather: Floods

Flash floods, rapid rises in water levels with high flow velocities – can occur in a matter of seconds. Make sure you monitor weather service announcements during big storms in case of a flash flood warning. If you live in a region that is prone to flash floods, make sure you have a map to the quickest region of high ground. With these figures readily available, weather services can provide predictions and early warnings to give inhabitants of the region time to move to higher ground. Flash flood guidance is the amount of rainfall for a given duration necessary to produce flash flooding.

The forecast center for your region calculates flash flood guidance for all the bodies of water in the area. Areas with a high risk of flash floods (such as the land surrounding large dams) often have warning systems in place to help alert the population in advance of a flood. Dry riverbeds can channel water long distances and create dangerous flood waves, due to the ground being too dry to quickly absorb the water and the lack of plant life to slow the water’s course. Even deserts are not immune to flash flooding. A similar situation occurred in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1972 when 237 people were killed.

In mountainous regions the rainfall can run down a steep mountain and pick up so much speed that it becomes a dangerous wave moving too fast for people to escape. The roofs, sidewalks, and roads of a city create dangerous amounts of runoff water during big storms, and this runoff can easily become a flash flood if an adequate storm sewer system is not in place. Urbanization is also an important cause of flash floods. Factors such as rainfall intensity and duration, as well as regional topography, can all contribute to a flash flood situation.