Worst weather you've ever driven in.

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Apr 7, 2017
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Mississippi
April 1985 coming back home (westward) from hills of Alabama. Left at 2:00 AM heading into severe t'storm after another + tornado warning. Got off on backroad that I thought would be a short cut to US 278....wasn't. Tired, sleepy, could not see bc of rain, defrost was a no go (No AC too). Found a lone closed to store where I got under the gas pump awning near 278 happened to have an encased road map that said "you are here". No tornado on the ground but the funnel cloud went just to my south during my wait.

Finally departed when lightening and wind let up, still rained hard up to about to about an hour from home then quit. As the first rays to dawn happened, the clouds began to break up as I drove into my hometown...thankful to be back home
 
Got caught in whiteout conditions in Sardine Canyon in Northern Utah. I was driving a white car, only reason I could tell where my hood ended and the snow began was because of my headlights.


I grew up in central Oklahoma and got stuck in a tornado-producing storm that rolled through my town in 2007, I believe. The wind was blowing so hard that a trash can blew through the street and hit my car while I was moving along and put a dent in the fender. I fancied myself a stormchaser at that point in my life and with a car that was barely worth scrap value, I figured the opportunity was too good to pass up.
 
February 2003 I drove from Rochester, NY to Mount Laurel, NJ in a terrible snowstorm. Interstates were empty. I just kept it between the snowbanks and had to get out and knock the ice off the headlights periodically. Usually takes 6 hours, took me me 9 that night. Finally started to clear up when I got to Philadelphia.
 
Spent about 8 hrs driving in a tropical storm on way back from Biloxi.

Thank god I was riding on basically brand new tires but it was the first time I was really tired from driving.

What was it like? Think of driving through those thunderstorms you encounter on the highway. Imagine driving in that storm for 8 hrs.
 
A couple years ago driving from AL to NC, I got stuck under a torrential downpour that was taking the same path at about the same time. What normally would have been probably an 8 hour drive ended up being closer to 11-12. The rain was just non stop and HEAVY. It was the most exhausting drive I have ever done, and I've done NC to VT in a day in the same vehicle (my 02 Ranger).
 
Phoenix isn't too exciting. Got stuck in a hail storm in October 2010 that damaged roofs, A/C units, and pelted cars and broke windows all over. Was in my mom's car and it got like 10 small hail dents.

We get microbursts of rain so all of a sudden, it's like a bucket of water is pouring for 10 minutes, then it's gone. Floods the streets up to your knees.

We get these in the summer too:

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Coming home from work at midnight.
Snowing so hard, I missed the street I was to turn onto.
Could not really see past the side of the road / made reading street signs impossible.
 
Obligatory winter story - Last December I was driving home for Christmas break, and I hit I-29 north of Council Bluffs IA. The overnight weather showed a potential for freezing rain, but 511 showed mostly clear roads, so I was cautious but not too concerned. Immediately after leaving town, I saw an incredibly slow caravan of cars and semis with their hazards on. I didn't have any idea what I'd gotten myself into. Traffic was moving at about 10-15 mph for the better part of an hour. As it turns out, the road surface had been lightly misted overnight and was coated in incredibly slippery ice that was challenging to even see - a very even glaze on concrete roadway. I remember seeing about 30-40 cars in the ditch over that period, all recent, and at one point I started to slide into the ditch at 5 or so mph. I simply couldn't stop on that nearly-frictionless surface. I've driven in plenty of blizzards and on roads where the surface was indistinguishable from the ditch. But never have I felt that I had so little control over the car, or had to drive so slowly - any application of throttle or brake felt dicey, but it turns out that the car coasts at faster than 5 mph, so that didn't work. Even the snowiest roads are usually drivable at faster speeds than the icy ones this time. It took nearly an hour to drive between exits 55 and 72 of I-29, if that's any indication of how terrible the roads were. Barring some cars from states that don't see too much winter weather (TX, OK), who flew by and some ended in the ditch, most people were moving at about my speed, so it certainly wasn't just me. Otherwise, nothing I've ever driven in MN/IA/SD/NE in the winter can compare. Generally, you are good for at least 30 mph even on "bad" roads. Not this time!
 
We had a white-knuckle drive from Orlando back to the DC area a few years ago in my wife's little Corolla. Solid rain the entire ride. It's normally a 12 hour trip that took us over 15. My nerves were shot by the time we got home. Never again.
 
Second-worst weather... December 2018. I was west of Mankato MN and had to travel home in the dark when this fervent wind and snow blizzard erupted. Could not see past the hood of the car. The blowing snow made it look like I was driving into a wall. The trip took 4 hours. I made it home, crawled inside the house and wept.

Worst weather... Some time in 2000 or 2001. I was driving from somewhere to home. It was sunny and mild outside. The now ex-wife was in the car nagging me something fierce. The trip took 10 minutes. I made it home, crawled inside the house and wept.
 
I have driven through Cat 1 hurricane Humberto, and I have driven through floods, but I think the worst was a fog that I drove through at 3AM -5AM coming home off working night shifts. It was bad all the way but some spots were much worse than others. It took me 2 hours to drive 35 miles. Close to home the fog was so thick it looked like a grey blanket draped over the windshield. I had to open the drivers door and look at the stripe on the pavement as I crawled along at 1 or 2 mph. I literally missed my own street. Had to get out and walk back to estimate how far to back up to make the turn.
 
Spent the night on I-5 near Mt. Shasta some winters back. Traffic just stopped. I got to know some of the folks stranded around me a little bit as weather permitted, which wasn't much. It was reported it was snowing up to 4" an hour at times. From bare wet pavement to camping out overnight on the fast lane and 3'-4' of snow the next morning when help arrived. Yuck. A trio of plows and a snow blowing machine led myself and hundreds of other vehicles to the next off ramp where there was food and lodging. Another night in nowheresville. With massive road closures it ended up taking 3 days for the usual 10 hour trip.
 
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79 North around Pymatuning winter snow whiteout at night. Could not see road, could not see side of road for a spot to pull off, and afraid to keep going because something may be stopped in front of me that I could not see, and afraid to stop because a big-rig might slam into me. Basically there was no good choice. I managed to get onto the side of the road and wait it out, all the while worried about being hit. I will never ever travel at night when there is the chance of a snow storm.

One time on 79 North in the day the snow was falling fast and also blowing, and there were no vehicles ahead of me and there was no track of any cars in the snow ahead of me because the blowing snow had made the road look as flat snow covered as the side of the road, and I could not tell where the road was, and what was the side of the road. But there was an overpass way ahead so I just keep aiming for where the lanes would be under that overpass. When I got there to the overpass there were enough tracks in the snow to follow to stay on the road.

Back in 1974 in the morning I was traveling to McKeesport from the Allegheny county airport area, and was by Westinghouse Bettis atomic research plant at the top of the hill and the fog was soooo thick I could not see the front of the car. I knew exactly where I was on the road and to my right there was an entrance to a parking lot of a coffee and doughnut shop that I could not see. I drove the car into that lot very very slowly, and went into the shop and ordered coffee and a doughnut to wait out the fog. A few minutes later there was the sound of a big car crash outside. The shop was full of people waiting out the fog and not one person went outside to see if they could help out the people who were in the crash. It would of been seriously risking your life to go outside where no one could see you.
 
Many blizzards. Colorado. Vermont, etc. some supercell thunderstorms with hail. A few hurricanes.

One hurricane in particular, many years ago, found me on the highway driving into the wind, which was around 90 MPH.

I was in second (‘77 Olds 98, automatic) and even with the car floored, I couldn't get over 40-45 MPH.

Too much wind resistance!
 
As a southerner that had never seen snow over 1" in depth .

Driving through Michigan in a Mercedes Sprinter van , around Coloma, Michigan on 94 heading West - January 2017 at night with all the snow storms blowing in from Lake Michgan, making it next to impossible to see the road much less the 18 wheelers in front of us.

Had never driven in anything like that ever , saw many cars in ditches .
 
Drove in a 3" per hour snow rate with some wind at night.

Roads had about 6" of loose powder. Just a bad idea.

Followed a truck and able see the road better and guided. Looked all the same.
 
June 1991, riding thej GoldWing with future wife and towing a pop up camper. We were westbound on Highway 2 passing Grand Forks on the way to Devil.s Lake for the evening, as future wife was not feeling well. I had already gotten a reservation for motel, so all seemed good. We had noticed a thin black line on the horizon, but it seemed to be static, so we thought it was nothing to worry about. About an hour later, it was obviously building, so we stopped to top off the gas and put on rain gear. As we rode west, it rapidly moved toward us, building to impressive heights. I had a radio station from Devils Lake on, weather reports were mosly clear, small chance of evening t-storms. Now it was nearly dark out (at 5 pm), and lightning was continuous ahead. I decided to get as close to town as I could, since we were 18 miles out. I was accelerating through 90 mph when I passed a North Dakota trooper doing the 55 speed limit. He just waved us on and I never let off the throttle. About 4 miles later I saw a wall of grey ahead, so slowed to 45 and moved to the fog line in the right lane. The grey wall was water, being blown across the road by a wicked north wind. It pushed us across 2 lanes, nearly into the median before I caught it. I had to crack open my visor because of fogging, and it felt like someone put a garden hose into the helmet. The water was going through my helmet and running down my back, inside the rain suit. We were riding at lean angle of about 15 degrees to counteract the wind. and experiencing constant lightning. We broke out the back side into sunshine, thank goodness. The radio was now hearable, and were announcing a storm had just passed, dropping 1 1/2 inches of rain in twenty minutes. Nothing was dry, in the bike bags or the trailer storage space. Never did that with the wife again.
 
I've driven through several blizzards. One that dumped 34"'s of snow.

I've driven through the mountains of Pa in a heavy snowsquall that created multiple accidents.

I've driven through many severe storms. One last week that was a derecho.

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