Come on, Northeast...Where are all the photos of your Model S in the snow? Nemo baby!

[TheAustin]

We got about 16" of snow on the eastern end of Long Island from Winter Storm Nemo (We're naming them now?), and almost that much fell on My Model S. Thanks to the iPhone App, I was able to preheat my car to a balmy 80 degrees, and most of the snow slid right off with minimal effort (Exception: The hood...No engine to warm it up and melt it!). I drove it today, and while it took some effort getting it out of my very icy driveway, it handled way better than I expected on roads that still had snow pack, ice, and slush on them...And I have the summer 21" tires, so you can imagine my surprise that I didn't end up in a ditch. I mean, it's no 4-wheel drive SUV, but when I rocked the wheel side to side, it kept going straight. It didn't slide as I took curves at 30-40mph. Of course, when I hit the brakes on top of snow, it's skidded forward a bit, but so does my wife's Range Rover. So, anyway, for anyone is colder environments, you may be equally surprised at how well the summer 21's perform. I had planned to swap out to the all-weather 19" wheels when they come back in stock, but not anymore...I'm sold on the 21's.

So, here's my car under a nice, cozy blanket of snow:

FYI, I had planned to put my car cover on my Model S so I could easily scrape snow off my car without scratching it. Well, it rained all day before the snow started, and I didn't want to put the cover on a wet car, for fear that the cover would freeze to the car.

 

[gsxrex]

Always nice to see a car in snow. Also love the shots with just single pairs of tire tracks from the car.

Yeah, what's up with the storm naming thing? And we couldn't come up with something other than Nemo? When I think of Nemo, I think of a clown fish, which is hardly menacing.

 

[TheAustin]

Always nice to see a car in snow. Also love the shots with just single pairs of tire tracks from the car.

I wish...With over a foot of snow on the ground, with ice underneath, things got messy in our driveway pretty quickly! I was lucky to get out in the first place!

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah, what's up with the storm naming thing? And we couldn't come up with something other than Nemo? When I think of Nemo, I think of a clown fish, which is hardly menacing.

I thought of Captain Nemo, the fictional submarine captain from Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. As for the naming, it was the Weather Channel that decided to do it, starting this year. The National Weather Service is the organization that names Hurricanes, but they don't seem to have the same kind of involvement when it comes to localized Winter Storms.

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/why-we-name-winter-storms-20121001

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

There are a couple here from the Boston area:

Driving in New England Winters

 

[TheAustin]

There are a couple here from the Boston area:

Driving in New England Winters

Wow, awesome! Those have me beat by a mile (and a foot!)

 

[Robert.Boston]

I admit it, I abused my beloved Model S today. The snow piles are measured in feet, and the Model S is a long and wide car. Making some tight corners, I was pivoting the car against snowbanks, letting a bit of free rein on the TC swing the rear end to make the turn. I gulped hard, fearing some non-trivial damage to the body panels. As far as I can tell, however, she's in perfect shape. The Model S is a much tougher car than you might think an aluminum car would be!

The new TC algorithm seems to work very well in treacherous conditions. Enough wheel spin to find the traction point, but enough control to balance the wheel spin.