Snow Days

Not bad for HuffPo. Pretty balanced and detailed. Pity they can't be that balanced and fair in reporting the real news. :laugh:

One thing the map designer forgot, though he did mention cold and windchill being more of a factor than snow in some parts (and I read that to mean "this part") of the Midwest: Ice. Sometimes we don't get any snow at all, but a quarter of an inch of ice is enough to close schools, down power lines and create general havoc in Kansas City.

 

If they close the schools because of ice that would be an Ice Day, wouldn't it? :smilewinkgrin:

Now I live just down the road from Salty so I understand him being proud of Snow Days. Yesterday I had to drive 100 miles for work: 50 coming and going. It was snowing to beat the band. Eight inches on the ground and another six on the way. Long and short of it was that it didn't take all that much longer than usual.

Round these parts the municipalities take great pride in their snow fighting. We've got trucks and we ain't afraid to use them. 1/2" of ice can tear up a sight more vehicles than a foot of snow. We pay a big price for our foul weather mobility. We'll use tons of salt from Salty's neighborhood so we can drive on bare roads in a blizzard. We get five year old cars with rotted out fenders in return.

 

It's gotta be deeper than three feet and up hill both ways.

 

Yeah, I remember snow, but I haven't seen any in a long time. Our temperature is supposed to be around 70 degrees F today and at least in the 60's for the next few days. I'm so glad I left Michigan years ago.

 

yup. and severe cold prevents diesel buses from operating. had that happen last month.

 

For a practical people, we don't get so technically involved in what we call a "day off" that we bother to change the name for the conditions. :laugh:

I can appreciate that, because I grew up in north Missouri on a farm back in the 1950s and 1960s, when the jet stream normally lived down by Little Rock in the winter. That meant we got all the Canadian weather, with the cold and the snow, that stays north of Des Moines most of the time these days. It does look like it's changing again, though, because the jet stream has been hanging out around Springfield, Missouri most of this winter, but it's also been both northeast and southwest of Kansas City, taking a real sharp north-south bend to it before heading off to the Atlantic.

We've been going through schizophrenic weather as a result. For two days it's be in the 50s, then it'll drop to eight or nine above with snow, ice or a combo of the two. Tuesday we got 11" of snow here, followed by two days in the single digits. My hometown in north Missouri has had four feet of snow already this year, and that's about what we used to get in a typical winter back when I was in school.

Consequently, our cities are running out of road salt and turning to sand for the side streets, and don't use as much of either as they were using in past winters. Used to be we'd have dry, bare roads too, but this last storm, they let the traffic do most of the snow clearance after an initial few passes with the plows, instead of working on the roads until they were clean.

And yeah, our fenders rot out too, unless we spend $500 on undercoating when we buy a car new. Thankfully, about 97% of our used vehicles had that done when they were sold the first time.

 

It turns out that the heavy snows this winter were the long-awaited shovel ready jobs.

 

Yeah, I can see that (from my front window).

 

Having grown up in the north, snow and ice are not big deal for me. Now that I live in the south, it seems the mere threat is enough to shutdown entire cities.

Though the issue in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago got out of hand, having a realistic approach about the snow is helpful. These folks in the south are just plain nuts.

I don't mind the snow days, it means I can get into the office a bit later than usual and leave earlier if I don't have much to do.

 

This new ice is more heat tolerant than the ice before the man-caused global warming started.

 

Ah, the evolution of ice. :thumbsup: Only the fittest ice survives leaving it stronger and heat resistant. Global warming will melt Arctic ice leaving sheets of it in Georgia.

Some hemp-sandal clad PhD will announce this to the world and his colleagues will applaud loudly shouting, "Brilliant!" :BangHead:

 

Here in Minneapolis we've had 4 "extreme cold days" where school was closed down. What's interesting is that we've had the same low temperatures as we had when they closed the schools previously but now that the legal limit for minimum required school days is almost reached, they are no longer closing down the schools. So apparently, when it's -15 degrees these days it's not as cold as when it was -15 degrees a month ago.

It's been below zero every morning for the past 15 days or so. It was -11 this morning. So far we've had 42 days where the temperature has been below zero for at least part of the day.

 

Someone else who lives in Minneapolis told me that they never talk about the weather there because it is always bad.

The news is saying that the Great Lakes are almost frozen over. I can't remember that before but I guess that it happens from time to time.

Just image how much warmer it would be if George Bush had not gotten rid of the Edison light bulb, which was melting the glaciers.

 

Not true, in the summer time the weather is only bad on your days off from work.

Yes, Lake Superior is about to freeze over.

Ummm...those glaciers melting? That must be in a different hemisphere than the one I live in. I guess that's why they call it 'global warming'.


Here's my routine in the morning:

1. Look at thermometer. Faint.

2. Go outside and start my truck. Scrape the frost off the windshield and windows. Let truck warm up at least 5 minutes.

3. Come inside and run warm water over my hands.

4. Drive 13 year old son to school.

5. Come inside and run warm water over my hands.

6. Put on a sweatshirt, shoes, and a hat. Go to my home office in the basement and begin my workday.

7. After about 45 minutes leave desk, go to bathroom and run warm water over my hands. (repeat as needed throughout day.)

8. [late afternoon] Go outside and start my truck. Scrape the frost off the windshield and windows. Let truck warm up at least 5 minutes.

9. Come inside and run warm water over my hands.

10. Drive 13 year old son home from school.

11. Come inside and run warm water over my hands.