In Friday’s edition of The Daily Eastern News, an article was published stating exactly how the city of Charleston prepared for the always dependable Illinois winter weather.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for the article to run, considering the snow/sleet/ice mixture that day was only followed by temperatures in the single digits for the rest of the weekend.

Overall, it seemed like the city’s main streets were maintained in reasonable fashion considering how quickly the weather conditions changed. But at times, there were certainly more than likely situations where accidents could have been prevalent had drivers not maintained speeds that are suggested for such weather conditions.

More specifically, it seemed that Seventh Street in particular, on the campus side of Lincoln Avenue, was where the least attention was paid by the city considering the street remained covered in a fair amount of snow on top of a sheet of ice up until Sunday.

Those who were driving that road and parts of Fourth Street can understand just how difficult winter driving can be when the mixture of conditions becomes just right. Certainly this weekend would be considered just right for those conditions to be at their worst.

It’s important to note that I’m not saying that the city of Charleston did a poor job reacting to the adverse conditions outside over the weekend. For the most part, the streets were handled the best way possible considering how quickly the city had to react to what was happening outside.

The point to be made here, more so than possibly just blaming the city for the poor conditions, is that the unpredictability of the winter weather supersedes most of the efforts made by any city.

The exception here is Chicago, which in the past went through controversies with city workers who were dumping and spending too much money on salt. The city workers who directed how the snow plows were ran called for enough salt to be dumped onto the streets for the city to look like every street had a thin layer of the dirty white looking substance covering the ground.

The opposite seemed true in Charleston over the weekend, where ice was prevalent enough on some streets for some to wonder if any precautions were being taken to limit the dangerous situation on the roads.

Take into account that driving around the town on Friday and Saturday nights is fun enough when one has to encounter those who have been out to the bars or house parties throughout the night.

A few issues that drivers may have had to encounter while driving over the weekend in Charleston could have included anything from walkers who apparently didn’t know that there was a sidewalk underneath all the snow to those who believe that sliding across parking lots on a snow board was a good idea, even though cars couldn’t exactly stop on a dime.

When placed in those situations, as a driver, there aren’t many other scenarios that are as stressful or can make somebody feel so helpless. Every driver has probably encountered it – when the brakes on your car lock up and the car in front of you isn’t moving. No matter how the city or the driver handles the situation, however, there is no doubt that the winter weather can get the better of many.