Heat powers the engine that drives the arctic air down here. I've said it before.

You say many things. 99.1% of it makes no sense to normal people.

[jpzk]

It is all relative... I live in the Netherlands (Holland for some), we've had 8 inches of snow here on Sunday for the first time since 20 years.
Now we still live in total chaos, the roads are blocked, the railway system stopped working etc.... and they expect the situation to continue for some days.
I guess eastern USA would have experienced a day with this snowfall as an average / normal winter day.

Seemingly a problem which is likely to continue on because of climate changes on a planetary scale?
I guess the best thing to do for those unlikely-to-be-hit countries woudl be to stash a few bucks aside in case they need to buy snow removal equipment.

JP

[jpzk]

So its all about what you normally get and how prepared you are for the snow at this time of year

Exactly, that is exactly my point.
If you're not prepared for such eventualities, well, you're in trouble.

JP

[jpzk]

Long Island got a record 26 inches of snow, yet classes at my daughter's school weren't cancelled.
We are New Yorkers - we cope.

Chris

I guess a lesson well-learned from a few years back?

JP

[jpzk]

We can only hope all the Global Warming wonks were able to private jet home and arrived safely. Maybe ice cube credits will be on Al Gore's new agenda.

I wonder if they had a good time in Copenhagen?
What came out of this anyway?
I know that we, Canada, got the dreaded "Fossil Trophy" !!

JP

[jpzk]

The news here in the Washington D.C. area wasn't that it was snowing, it was the quantity of snow all at once. Where I am in Northern Virginia, it snowed for over 24 hours straight and we got probably over 20 inches at my place. For here, that is a HUGE amount all at once. The schools were closed because they couldn't get everything cleared quickly enough. In my area especially there are a lot of places where kids just cannot walk to school (like where I live: Too far, no sidewalks, rural winding two-lane roads through woods). In D.C. the issue was the sidewalks were piled with snow from the snowplows overnight and the kids would have had to walk in the streets.
I can imagine! That really must be quite a shock, especially in areas where this sort of thing is so rare.
We're so close to the winter holiday break, they just called the break a bit early. I'm not complaining. This means I get to sleep in too
At least, as you say, that'll give you a bit of an extended break. Good!edit: Also, several years ago, they didn't close the schools after a snow, the plows went through, the roads were slick, a bus crashed and a couple kids died. The area is still a bit paranoid even though that was about 15 years or so ago
I would be too.

Cheers to you and a good time for the Holiday season.

JP

[jpzk]

"Panic" ??? No, but you have to realize that we cannot afford to have millions and millions of dollars worth of snow fighting equipment sitting around for a storm like this that comes thru every 20 years or so. Thus when it does happen, things shut down a bit. You have all the equipment and experience you need because this kind of snow event is the norm for your area.

Mike

Mike, just so you know, I am not making fun of the situation and I understand your point.
I agree that we live in this part of the world where large snow accumulations are taken for granted, and yes, we have the equipment to take care of the storms, of course.
I thought of the word "panic" because it must be quite a hit when you get something this huge, even if it happens only every 20 years or so .... still shocking.
Cheers, and I wish you a great Holiday Season.

JP

[jpzk]

I also think as far as schools and their transportation go, they're a lot more cautious as people will jump to sue for any reason. So they err on the side of caution and shut down.

Most of the plows around here belong to private business, like construction and paving companies, and even private citizens. They're contracted by the county to clear roads when the need exists. I'm sure it's cheaper that way.

We're lucky in that we have a neighbor with a bobcat thingy (larger though). He made short work of our cul-de-sac.

That being said, this is what my street looked like still, two days later:


We have hills too.

Mel,
This looks almost exactly like some of the country roads around here in the winter. Not being sarcastic, just to point out: it actually looks very "nice", in a photography-art-way.
Wish you all the best!

JP

[jpzk]

Gotta love Global Warming!!!!

That would be a well-educated comment!
I often wonder how much of these sudden and scary situations have to do with global "warming" .... ? Whether they are simple "coincidences" or tell-tale truths of climate changes ... I dare not commenting for fear of starting an endless polemic.

Cheers.

JP

[jpzk]

This is residential. It's only 25mph anyway. Most people drive that. Except the resident police officer. He drives 45

And yeah, no complaining here! I got some priceless shots of my kids sledding down the "luge track" they packed into the snow (my lot is practically a ski-hill).

Great occasion to test the white balance of the K7!

JP

[jpzk]

Yeah, I was joking a bit. The one drawback for those of us living in areas with routine snows is the road salt used turns everything brown. After a couple of months of salt applications to our roads, our rush hour traffic in the morning and evening stirs up what can best be described as salt clouds. You breathe, taste and wear the nasty stuff. Even the cabin filters in our cars can't block all of the salt dust. So I spend sunny weekend afternoons washing road salt off our cars, driveway and out of the garage. By late January my wife and I are usually considering moving to southern Arizona.

That really sounds as if you were talking about Montreal ... I am glad to live at least 4 hours away from it too.

[jpzk]

Heat powers the engine that drives the arctic air down here. I've said it before.

I thought I had heard/read that somewhere. Any pointers?
JP

[cardinal43]

Exactly, that is exactly my point.
If you're not prepared for such eventualities, well, you're in trouble.

JP

We were well prepared here in northern Va (I'm about 10 miles north of Mel and about the same distance south of MReilly), as it was all over the news and people made their traditional run on toliet paper and milk. I measured 23" on level ground in my back yard. My wife and I were supposed to go to the 1:00pm Saturday Rockettes performance at the Verizon Center, but the Center finally announced they were closed. The Federal government was closed yesterday and so was my office as 90% of our current workload is government contracts. My wife works at the city HS (only 1 in town), and they decided to start the holiday break early. They were supposed to close at noon on Wednesday. They historically have a problem clearing the parking lots after a big snow. I'm on leave today, so I plan to take my grandson (visiting from WA) to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum located near Dulles as he loves airplanes. Free admission, but $15 parking fee, no matter how many are in the car.

[Parallax]

Gotta love Global Warming!!!!

Lets just hope that everybody got out of the global warming conference in time!
Big freeze brings misery and death to Europe

[Ratmagiclady]

Lets just hope that everybody got out of the global warming conference in time!
Big freeze brings misery and death to Europe

Just keep claiming that every cold day means 'Global warming' must be a myth, despite the climate models you ignore and deny predicting *more extreme conditions, not balmier ones, particularly in Northern Europe...*

It'll help, really.

If you can't figure out that 'more heat in the total system moves more air, including cold air moving to other regions more suddenly,' ...at least give someone else some credit.