Also, snow in late December is relatively rare. We missed a white Christmas by one day. Only have an inch here where I'm at, but hey, take what you can get.
That said, having spent most of my life in Portland and also most of my life driving in the mountains in the winter to ski & snowboard, I can confirm that people in Portland can't drive in the snow. It's almost as amusing as people driving in San Diego in the rain. :-)
It is more common to see 4WD vehicles abandoned in ditches because they didn't realize 4WD doesn't help with braking or going down a hill.
Wanna learn how to drive in the snow? Tackle an unplowed, 45 degree hill littered with vehicles that didn't make it.
I'm sure your advice is a bit tongue in cheek? :D
I live on the hillier/colder/drier side of Washington where we do get some actual snow. During my kids' learning years of driving (16-18), first big snow, I find an empty/abandoned parking lot, take my kids there, do a couple of donuts and such, then throw the kid the keys, tell 'em "stay in the middleish and have fun."
They get a feel for massive understeer, sliding vs static fraction, etc this way. It makes it not a surprise later. Since they all have to learn to drive a stick (manual), we learn how to brake via downshifting too.
It all makes me feel skilled and is one of those rare moments where my teenagers actually think I have some useful wisdom to pass on still. Sadly, it earns me no credibility in any other area of their lives I'd like to peddle my wisdom to them. :)
Coeur d'Alene, ID here. My advice to "new to the area" people when the topic of snow driving comes up is "go to a parking lot...put your car into a slide, spin, etc". It gives you a very good idea of what the car is going to do on the road and more importantly...allows you to learn how to recover from those situations at a time where you are less likely to have panic set in.
It really only takes a few minutes to get the feel for how the car will react. Learning those things in a controlled situation is a very good way to develop the "instinct" to correct without panic. Most of the time hitting the brakes is the wrong thing to do...that is not natural to a panicking driver.
Definitely worth looking into in the PacNW.
Next slide will see them execute the correction on instinct.
Something to be aware of when shifting down on stick shift is that certain carts are really unbalanced when braking on the gear. You won't notice in the summer, but on slippery roads just releasing the accelerator carelessly while in a low gear can send you on a sled ride.
If you've driven a racing go-kart of the type that only has brakes on the rear axle, you'll be very familiar with this! Good practice.
This isn’t great advice unless you want your insurance premiums to go up.
If you want to learn to drive in the snow, drive in the snow. Get a feel for your vehicle. Drive slower than you think you need to. Know your route ahead of time and avoid inclines if possible.
Don’t play pinball with your car down a hill full of other cars.
The first key to effective snow driving is a light throttle and choosing the correct tyre. Driving in snow requires a tall tyre with a narrow section-width. This allows the tyre to cut through the crust and obtain traction on the hard surface beneath the snow (the opposite of sand tyres)...
And so on. I used to teach this stuff -- https://www.wittenburg.co.uk/offroading/Driving/Snow.html
It's like 'choosing' to slip through the snow wearing Oxford shoes, or, put on a pair of boots.
All of these comments about bad driving in the W. Coast, about 50% of this is just everyone has completely the wrong tires.
Snow is no stranger in Scotland either, and there's no snow tyres requirement in the UK.
Germany has a law that states you must have winter tyres or all-year tyres from October to Easter ("Oktober bis Ostern" - O to O).
Drive up to Tiffindell Ski Resort in South Affrica (8,920 ft up) in whatever you have - donkey cart, bicyle, 4x4... That gets snowed in regularly, and there's a just a hand-made "4WD recommended" sign at the bottom of the mountain.
I totally get the confusion.
... and why people are driving around in smash up derbies with just 2 inches of snow.
I'm only just saying 'there isn't that much confusion' elsewhere, it's not like Bostonians have super magical driving ability.
They mostly just have winter tires.
Winter tires with proper 4x4 and ABS etc. can be a pretty safe package.
But what really happens is we have a lot of people on summer tires or the crappiest of all season commodity tires. As long as you don't have to do an emergency stop or an evasive maneuver, they seem like they're adequate for Oregon weather. But I recommend everyone with such tires try a hard stop or turn (in a big parking lot of course) with these tires when it's sub-40F.
Fortunately I live on the California coast now, but when I had to deal with snow I had a set of Hakkapeliitta snow tires (from Finland), they were incredible. I wouldn't want to risk snow driving on any generic all-weather tires.
Snow tires also can't make stupid people not stupid, much to the chagrin of many an internet commenter and clipboard warrior.
As someone who is responsible for a fleet of vehicles that have to deal with snow I can say from experience that high end snow tires will not make empty RWD vans handle better than a run of the mill AWD crossovers on Walmart's finest all seasons. No amount of money can fix that kind of weight distribution.
It just keeps happening because there are new ones every year.
I was rather surprised to find out that my parents get a snow storm every year in late February or early March that dumps 1-3 inches of snow that takes several days to melt. They live not 40 minutes from La Jolla, a city in Southern California known for year round perfect weather.
They're barely at 3,000 feet elevation and as far as I know, the snow line in the Sierra Nevada mountains, even further north, is over twice that [1]. The nearest town a few miles away and a few hundred feet lower receives no snow whatsoever so we've been completely puzzled by the phenomenon. The funny thing is, I can't find any information about it online - it seems to be a very localized phenomenon in a sparsely populated exurban neighborhood and the locals just shrug about it.
I agree that most people don't care about climate mechanics, but it is well understood.
Chicago was a balmy 55 on Christmas Eve
in the lower to mid 40’s on Christmas Day
No white Christmas here
Only RAIN!