It's all relative. I woke up this morning to this idyllic wintry landscape. Being of hardy Michigander stock, I went out for a morning hike with the dog, who loves snow though he's seen it only a few times in his 4 years.
This was a mere inch or so, yet, on the news today, France was paralyzed! People in shelters, truckers forced off the road outside of Limoges...let's see they got a historic 10 cm (That's about 4 death defying inches) of snow....The pathetically sad thing is that it will probabaly be slush by 2 pm this afternoon.....
It's all relative...I remember a morning in New York in the early 90's when we were hit by a 26 inch blizzard overnight, okay, the city shut down for a few hours and I walked to work in a path cleared by a snow plow down the middle of 14th Street.
Then there was the great blizzard in the mid 70's in Ohio, when I was stuck at my job as a raliroad drawbridge operator on the Maumee River for 30 hours...
That was grand, the storm his just after dawn, a wall of super cold wind roared down the river pushing a veritable wall of steam and snow in front of it. When the wind hit the bridge, the screen door of the bridgehouse blew off and the propane tanks flew into the river....Unfortunate, because the toilet was a "propane" powered facility...
The trains were halted for a few hours, but the river traffic kept right on through the storm...I did shut down the bridge once after informing the Coast Guard that I was walking to the mainland to get breakfast at the Mickey D on Superior Street...they never closed!
I just heard that there might be more snow this afternoon...I'll keep you updated on this disaster...it's almost as important as Johnny Halliday cancelling his Route 66 Tour!
4 comments:
Your French terror-snow is similar to that 1" that occasionally 'blankets' Atlanta, when the entire city shuts down. We hardy mid-westerners scoff at such stuff.
I recall the blizzard of 77-78 that struck Toledo when I struck off with a backpack, boots, heavy coat and gloves for the super market after 3 days stranded in the house, children wailing for food [tongue in cheek!].
Toledo has received a dusting, perhaps an inch so far this winter. That's it. Temperatures 'down' to -10° C. The grass is still green here on 18 December. Luckily for us Americans, there is no global warming. In a recent poll, only 29% of us 'believe' the scientists.
But then, 72% of us 'believe' in Heaven.
I was in fifth grade during the blizzard of 78, school was canceled for over a week! Sledded every day at Tamaron golf course. One of the best weeks of my life.
Yeah that was the blizzard...I was out on the Toledo Terminal RR Bridge at the head of the Maumee and stuck there for almost 2 days!
That was a very neat place to be. I could just open the bridge and leave it open for boats and I was cut off from the world.
I did have a world band radio...the bridge was one of the greatest antennaes I have ever used for short wave.
It did start to snow again here and at first it looked like it might turn to rain, but the temps dropped and it is really piling up! This looks like the biggest snowfall I have ever seen here! That's plus 6 inches...Again, I am truly cut off except for media....We are at the dead end of a rural road and if you didn't know my house was here, you would never see it.
....silence....
On the other hand, global warming?
This part of Europe is experiencing the phenomena of mid winter storms of a magnitude rarely recorded on a more frequent basis.
They are essentially tropical storms which travel across the Atlantic....
Our last hurricane force storm was KLAUS, last February. I am perhaps almost 100 miles inland from the Atlantic coast, yet, Klaus did a lot of damage to my barn roof and did a number on my chimney.
I am going to have the damage finally repaired in February...a year later, in which a 200 year old back stone wall of the barn collapsed as well...
I have been moving lots of rocks lately.....
Hello All,
We are expecting a Nor-Eastern blowing up from the South starting tonight and last all day Saturday. This is where we get our big snows. They are calling for 12" plus by Sunday's end. I have checked out my tractor to dig out ourselves and some of my neighbors.
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