Wyoming pileup involved over 100 vehicles in crashes on Interstate 80, 'rolling closures' in effect

Fox News ^ | March 3,2020 | By Travis Fedschun

[nascarnation]

Reminds me of some of the lake effect snow we’d get off Erie back when I lived in NE Ohio.

Unfrozen lake + sharp NW winds = big snow

[South Dakota]

Saw the worst truck accident I ever saw on that hill.
One truck passing another going downhill.

The wind caught the one truck and blew both of them into the ditch

[Nateman]

I've went into a spin with some wind driven snow across that road once. It was either that or go over the edge into the valley below. I ended up stuck in the medium. Amazing how time slows down during such scares. Probably only took a few seconds but it was like a slow motion movie as it happened.

Other than needing a wire to get towed out everything was fine.

[colorado tanker]

Interstate 80 in Wyoming—the Snow Chi Minh Trail

The section between Laramie and Rawlins first got the name. The Union Pacific and US 30 gave the Snowy Range a wide berth because of the high winds and ground blizzards in Winter. Then, along came the Feds to locate I-80. Of course they knew better than the locals and insisted the new highway track close to those beautiful mountains. It's the worst stretch of road and has the most accidents in Winter. IIRC 60 Minutes did a segment on it a long time age.

[lewislynn]

Back in the late 60's I was traveling on I 80 through Nevada late at night, there was no speed limit in Nevada in those days.

It was snowing and starting to stick. I saw flashing yellow light coming up from behind me. I was doing maybe 80 when 2 snow plows went by me doing about 95 blowing ice and snow all over me.

[Fiji Hill]

The Union Pacific and US 30 gave the Snowy Range a wide berth because of the high winds and ground blizzards in Winter.

I traveled Rte 30 from Laramie to Rock Springs in August, 1961. Although it was summer, there was still snow on the Snowy Range.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Pretty ugly!!

[Fiji Hill]

Spent one winter in Laramie. Aint the end of the world but you sure as hell can see it from there.

I spent the summer of 1961 in Laramie. The weather was very pleasant, and it rained almost every afternoon. When I returned in 1987 and again in 1991, I noticed that the street where we lived looked exactly as it did 30 years earlier except for the cars parked on it. The rest of the town didn't look like it had changed much since '61.

[Fiji Hill]

When I visited Wyoming in 1961, a woman said to me that outsiders remark that Wyoming has cold winters. She added, “yes, Wyoming does, indeed, have cold winters. So don’t move here.”

[ncpatriot]

How did you get that map? ...ie showing to bad road.

[reintarnation]

This is on my desktop:
Go to google.
Type in “map”
Then Click on the “Google Maps” link
Then in the upper left hand corner there is a small menu icon (3 horizontal bars)
Click it, and select “Traffic”
Pan and zoom.

[SuperLuminal]

I-80 west of Reno to the CA line is the “black ice” capital of the world, IMHO...

On several occasions, during the 70’s & 80’s, on that stretch of road, as “he who shall remain nameless” was wont to say, “I felt a tingle in my legs”...

[jimtorr]

I drove I-80 through Wyoming once, in mid-October 2012. Stayed one day ahead of winds strong enough that they closed the freeway. Stayed overnight in Rock Springs Best Western. Nich motel, big indoor pool just outside my room.

Very scenic highway, then it plunges down, down, down into the Great Salt Lake basin.

[The Great RJ]

I-90 through South Dakota and southern Minnesota has gates that close the road during winter storms and low visibility snow conditions. It is not unusual that several times during a typical winter that half of I-90 across South Dakota is closed to travel.