Bad Weather

Before my shift I check the 12 hour forecast on. weather.gov. the information available is pretty detailed. Also if there's a good sized city about halfway through, I check the local news station's website.

Before my shift I check the 12 hour forecast on. weather.gov. the information available is pretty detailed. Also if there's a good sized city about halfway through, I check the local news station's website.

Although I do completely agree, wind storms like the one I described (in that geography) can occur with little warning.

Considering the weather forecast is wrong frequently, many times it becomes a game time decision. I decided to stop, others didn't...taking a huge risk.

I can think of many times driving through 3" of accumulated "partly cloudy" on the ground.

So if i get a cb is there a certain channel dedicated to weather?

What I do is stay tuned to the weather. 1) My CB has weather band, and alerts. 2) Road dog trucking has weather updates 3) for the state I'm driving in, I look at the 511app.

If it gets too bad, I just shut down until conditions improve. (Just had to shut down on Wednesday, due to the snow in Iowa. 35n was a fuster cluck, until I got to 90. )

Although I do completely agree, wind storms like the one I described (in that geography) can occur with little warning.

Considering the weather forecast is wrong frequently, many times it becomes a game time decision. I decided to stop, others didn't...taking a huge risk.

I can think of many times driving through 3" of accumulated "partly cloudy" on the ground.

So, this brings up a question... If you make a quick-call like that, do you have to get permission first? Or can someone just park it and then explain to the DM what happened?

I hope to be out there on the road soon. And I also hope to find that balance between safety and not being the new guy making unnecessary waves. But if need be, I'll lean toward safety every time. Hopefully that choice doesn't come up too often.

Although I do completely agree, wind storms like the one I described (in that geography) can occur with little warning.

Considering the weather forecast is wrong frequently, many times it becomes a game time decision. I decided to stop, others didn't...taking a huge risk.

I can think of many times driving through 3" of accumulated "partly cloudy" on the ground.

So, this brings up a question... If you make a quick-call like that, do you have to get permission first? Or can someone just park it and then explain to the DM what happened?

I hope to be out there on the road soon. And I also hope to find that balance between safety and not being the new guy making unnecessary waves. But if need be, I'll lean toward safety every time. Hopefully that choice doesn't come up too often.

When it comes to issues of safety related to severe weather (snow, wind, ice, etc.), I make the decision to park and shelter, then call to inform my DM/DL what I am doing and why. Never, never had any push-back.

So if i get a cb is there a certain channel dedicated to weather?

Chris, I'm not 100% on this, but I'm thinking it's a CB with an added feature.

NOAA transmits local weather info on 5 different radio frequencies all across the U.S. and you can either buy "weather" radios that only pick-up these five bands, or you can often buy something like a CB that has an extra feature added (such as the hardware necessary to pick-up those five weather bands.) I've been an amateur radio (ham radio) license holder for awhile and radios are sort of a hobby of mine.

So if i get a cb is there a certain channel dedicated to weather?

What I do is stay tuned to the weather. 1) My CB has weather band, and alerts. 2) Road dog trucking has weather updates 3) for the state I'm driving in, I look at the 511app.

If it gets too bad, I just shut down until conditions improve. (Just had to shut down on Wednesday, due to the snow in Iowa. 35n was a fuster cluck, until I got to 90. )

Just look for a CB that has NOAA weather band on it. I have mine set to alert me to anytime it picks up an emergency weather bulletin. (Even if the truck and CB are off)

Many standard radios have a weather channel. Also, many CB’s have weather band. I always got up early and went inside the truck stop (or operations center) I was parked at to check weather.

Watch for when the temps will warm up if you’re in a snow area (typically late morning) and know that (along the Gulf Coast) humidity gets bad late afternoon, triggering heavy rains.

I thought drastic weather changes in the simulator was unrealistic...until I hit the snow in Albuquerque in late Spring or the crazy white out near Erie, PA. This was all while driving for Schneider and I only had to make the decision to shut down once (in two years). They completely understood, gave me layover pay and I delivered the next day. Another time a hurricane hit Lumberton, NC before I could get there and Schneider had me turn back and drop the load in Atlanta. Those people had bigger worries than a load of scrap paper.

I've ran into some pretty interesting weather.. In Wyoming I parked it as storm rolled in with 70mph sustained winds and my fully loaded Volvo 780 (heavy truck) rocked like you wouldn't believe, even when faced into the wind. (Yes I moved because the parking spots were side on into the wind)

Another time while in TN? Maybe. A storm kicked up real quick and I had lightning strike right in front of my truck while driving. Had to have be within 5ft. I was driving and my codriver was in the passenger seat at the time.. that was an interesting experience.

Awhile back I was on a long term assignment doing outside work. I had severe weather alerts enabled from weather.com. This being South Florida, lightning storms will pop up out of nowhere in the Summer. I would get an alert and sure enough about 10 minutes later it would be a downpour with lightning. That was a few phones ago. I wonder if the alerts would work in a moving truck. Stay tuned.