Snowfall Preparation Norms

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January 8, 2010
In articles, observation
4 comments

I’ve noticed recently that a handful of people raise their windshield wipers when we are expecting snow. Its pretty obvious what going on here: they are raising their wipers so they don’t get frozen to the windshield. This isn’t a shockingly new phenomenon, but I haven’t really seen it as a widespread behavior, and I’ve lived plenty of years north of the Mason-Dixon line. A simple action performed up front potentially saves alot of time and effort scraping off ice later on.

So, why don’t more people do this?

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Jess

Hey, that’s my car in the first photo! (I think.) Lifting the wipers is something I’ve always done, and watched my dad do growing up. Trying to unearth those wipers when there’s been inches of snow fall is a pain!

Somewhat related: I highly recommend the heavy-duty wipers from Jiffy Lube for winter driving – they’ll get rid of anything blocking your view!

Erik

@Jess, It makes a lot of sense, but its just not something that I have seen very often, even having grown up in New England. I’ve also recently heard of the strategy of putting a towel over the windshield that can then be easily removed taking all t he snow and ice with it, but that requires using and storing a secondary object in your car all the time. The lifting of the blades is a much more elegant solution.

Carol Smith

I lived in Chicago for eight years. A city where people put furniture in the road to save parking spaces that they have spent time digging out, so they can park there again upon their return.

I would think that Chicago of all cities would come up with this idea. But, I had to learn it from Southerners!

I first saw this practice in Northern Virginia (outside of DC). Ever since, when parking outside with the threat of snow, I lift mine.

Erik

@Carol – yes, I’ve seen the furniture in the road to save parking spaces in Chicago and other places.

I’ve spent most of my life north of the Mason-Dixon line (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin) and I haven’t seen this behavior before. It’s quite curious.

I’d love to map out behaviors like this to see where they occur and where they don’t. Where are they independently generated and where have the ideas migrated.