After cleaning up from these mid-November storms, get ready for a wet winter

With the recent time change, wet and violent weather, it's no surprise that most of us who drive in the metro Atlanta area have been white-knuckling it more than usual these days and nights. Certainly driving is a challenge on the dry, sunny days, but motorists' problems have been compounded by these recent events.

While the wet weather has been on the increase, GDOT (the Georgia Department of Transportation) recommends to slow down, leave plenty of distance from other vehicles, turn on the lights, put the phone down and my favorite piece of advice: stay awake. Anyone who has lived in this region knows that these recommendations are no joke, but all too often that advice is forgotten in many folks' hectic lives. 

Not terribly long ago, I was hit from behind on the Downtown Connector. The kid who hit me from behind apologized yet blamed his mistake on "taking too many people to work and having to go across too many lanes." Also, the light rain didn't help matters at that moment. By the way, that was about the sixth time I was hit from behind in my decades-long experiences driving in metro Atlanta. Thankfully as of this writing, all of my cars sustained little damage. Still, those experiences make me white-knuckle even more on these roads. Thankfully I do not have a heart condition (that I know of).

Still, the Seattle-like weather has not been kind to the Peach State lately as accidents, flooding and tornado damage has occurred - all in November! As of this writing, it looks like a tornado touched down on the Coweta-Fulton county line.  It seems that tornados aren't just for spring any longer. One need not look too far back to remember the tornado damage inflicted upon Adairsville in the northern part of the Peach State in January 2013.

It is said that since we have been experiencing this wetter weather more lately, we are in for a wet winter. It doesn't take much for us to know that we could be in for way too many forecasts which will include the words: wintry mix, snow, ice and maybe white-outs and blizzards. OK, maybe that's a bit dramatic on the last two, but heck, the area has had massive ice storms, the Storm of the Century over 22 years ago and who could ever forget that debacle in early 2014? I'm not sure about anyone out there, but I'm not looking forward to another nightmare scenario which could plague the Peach State once again. Is it too early or late to stock up on the food staples, batteries, jackets, hats, gloves, shovels and ice. To be honest, it's not a bad idea to stock the cars with food supplies , kitty litter, shovels and water. It's  tough to think ahead about winter just as we're coming out of spring-like storms in mid-November. Yuck, here comes winter.