Spring is something that everyone looks foward to after driving in the winter. The snow and ice and cold just wear a person out. Dealing with coats and boots and frozen brakes has worn out its welcome. Driving in the winter is not “easy” like it is in the spring and summer months.
You eagerly look forward to not wearing coats, boots and gloves. Your thoughts turn to all the things we do in the spring—outdoor sports, lawn care, gardening, grilling out, and the list goes on.
With this change of seasons comes another area of concern for all travelers of the highways – storms with hail, high winds and tornadoes. This affects all OTR truck drivers – just like the snowstorms and blizzards we deal with. Most of the semis have the weather radio and you can also get it with your CB radio. And with many truck stops having the weather channel on and drivers talking to one another, you have the capability of knowing what is coming or what you are heading into.
Sometimes these storms pop up suddenly and you do the best you can. Nature is awesome and scary at the same time. You will be driving in blue, black, green, pinkish sky and rain and wind while still maybe wearing sun glasses, which is really weird. You are watching nature and hoping you can reach the nearest town before you get hit with this storm. The local station is talking about seeking shelter now, even though you are in the same area as the person speaking to you. You do not recognize any of the town names being mentioned in the path of the storm, but you do catch a couple of county names and know you are next to that county. But that does not help you knowing where you are in relationship to the tornado that’s on the ground. You never know how that tornado is moving or growing. If you do not like storms, which I do not, this does not help the situation you are in.
As a professional driver, you should be aware of your location, but after all, you are human. You do know you are near a major city but the announcements are talking about Small Town USA and its just impossible to know the name of every Small Town USA. Its at this time you wish more info would be given, like if you are on Interstate Highway and approaching this mile marker then “get off the highway now and find shelter!” sort of thing.
Once you make it thru this weather and make your delivery, local drivers normally you might return home the same day on the same roads. But your hours are up and you reach a truck stop about 11pm with some rain and a thunderstorm and 30 mph winds. You are tired, and while in the sleeper, the winds rock the truck gently and you are listening to the rain come down and finally drift off to sleep.
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I have quickly learned exactly what you are talking about. It seems I have been running right through the heart of the country quite often and have hit some real nasty weather, including a tornado that passed just 2 miles from me and killed somebody. And I’ve only been driving for 2 months! But the part about warnings mentioning cities and counties, you’re right, many times you don’t really know where you are or worse, where you’re headed. So when the warnings are issued, it really doesn’t do us much good.
Stay safe out there!