Bizarre, Environment, Society

Frozen Water or Snowpocalypse? Washington Descends Into Panic With Approaching Storm

This is getting a bit out of control, folks. I know that I am a Chicago native with a snow attitude but people in this town are doing everything short of sacrificing their young to please the Snow God.

I just came back from the store where people seem to be preparing for the final judgment. One woman had two carts (which she was pushing and pulling) filled with toilet paper and water. I wanted to do an intervention and mention the likely possibility of spring.

If you turn on the radio, it is filled with assurances that radio stations will remain active throughout the “coming emergency.” Not only that, police are reporting an increase in auto accidents — BEFORE A FIRST SNOW FLAKE HAS FALLEN. I am waiting for conservative members of Congress to demand snowboarding meteorologists to force them to tell us the whole truth and when we can expect warm weather.

I am looking out the window at the first flakes now falling. My kids are watching cartoons and all is well. I have not even begun to look at the kids as foodstuffs if we run low on food. For those regulars in the area, the Turley blog will remain active through “the coming emergency” though the host is likely to begin consumption of Bloody Marys in . . . five, four, three, two . . .

93 thoughts on “Frozen Water or Snowpocalypse? Washington Descends Into Panic With Approaching Storm”

  2. Thanks for the link Bdman.

    Note that one of the results of global warming is that the weather becomes more extreme. Snow in Summer in Austalia is one of those extremes.

  4. Flurries hit southeast Australia as towns record their first-ever summer snowfalls

    excerpts from the story by: Rod Mcguirk, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
    CANBERRA, Australia – Australia is following its second-hottest year on record with extraordinary snow flurries in its southeastern alpine region, where some towns have recorded their first-ever summer snowfalls.

    Australia’s temperatures during the summer months of December through February can be uncomfortably hot even on its highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, which stands a modest 7,310 feet (2,228 metres) above sea level.

    Snow fell to 3,000 feet (900 metres) above sea level Monday in parts of New South Wales and Victoria states, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Jane Golding said.

    “Any time of year, it’s unusual to have snow down that far,” she said.

    …

    The town of Bombala in New South Wales, east of Kosciuszko, recorded its first summer snow since the bureau began keeping records there in 1965, Golding said.

    The town of Cooma, also in New South Wales but north of Kosciuszko, recorded its first summer snow since records were first kept in 1973.

    Cooma resident Krystal Pernitsch said the wind chill factor made Monday’s high temperature of 59 degrees (15 degrees Celsius) feel like 48 degrees (9 Celsius).

  5. Bdaman.

    Australia is a very flat continent. We dont really have mountains. The mountains on the East coast of Australia are really a sandstone plain that has tilted so that the inland parts have been raised and then erosion has created the “mountains” which are more like mesas between wide eroded canyons. The highest point in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney is less than 1100 metres 1094 metres at Mount Piddington.

    I used to live in Leura in the Blue Mountains elevtation 985metres. some years we would get a little snow, 2KA would broadcast the fact and people would rush up from Sydney to throw slush balls at each other. Very occasionally we would get a signifigant amount, I remember one year I forget which when we had maybe 10 inches and it was almost impossible to drive up the Mall, Leura’s main street, one car managed it though a BMC mini with front wheel drive.

    The highest mountain in Australia is Mt Kosciusko in the Snowy Mountains in the South of New South Wales 2228 metres. Their are ski resorts in the Snowy Mountains but they have to rely on snow making machines most years for a good part of the season.

    The rest of Australia does not have much in the way of mountains.
    The Island of Tasmania is situated in the path of the roaring forties so it has snow though it dos not have very high elevations.

    Actually I did not hear/read about the Summer Snow in Australia since I spend most of my reading time depressing myself by reading US blog articles about grotesque miscarriages of justice and the advancing police state and the permanent war. If you can point me to some links I would appreciate it.

  8. I lived in the area for 24 years and don’t miss the snowstorms. In fact, after the blizzard of 96, I had seen more snow in that winter than I had seen my whole life (or wanted to see for the rest of my life). I remember, though, that we thought the blizzard was God’s way of telling Congress he ran things. That was because as a Fed employee, we had been on furlough for several weeks. When Congress stopped their shenanigans and stated we could go back to work the next Monday. It was the Sunday before that the blizzard arrived. I had about three or four weeks of paid leave between the furlough and snowstorm.

    Would it hurt any of your feelings if I told you I retired and move back to my hometown, Tacoma, WA; and, it was 55 degrees yesterday. I do not miss the snow or the “panic of snow” one little bit.

  9. It’s now rain mixed with snow and ice here (St. Louis)but there shouldn’t be much of an accumulation. If we did get snowed in it wouldn’t be too bad; while I have very little ‘people food’ on hand I found an outstanding sale of cat food last week so I have about 500 cans of it in the basement. Once that’s gone it becomes more problematic. I’m smart and large but clumsy and slow. The 4 cats, while not particularly bright or large, are stealthy, agile and posses neither loyalty nor conscience. I think I would be at a disadvantage. 🙂

  15. Joe G: “the Official Snowpocalypse DC website, yet…”
    http://snowpocalypsedc.com/

    —-Outstanding LOL.

    +++++++++++
    Elaine M. “On the topic of icy things:

    Hubble sees Pluto changing color, ice sheet cover…

    Newly released Hubble Space Telescope photos show the distant one-time planet — demoted to “dwarf planet” status in 2006 — is changing color and its ice sheets are shifting.”

    UhOh: right church, wrong pew maybe? at 3:50 to 4:40:

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWTNaVteFfM&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

  16. OFF TOPIC but worthy of my post. The story is steamier and now you know why his wife kicked his butt out.

    I still would have voted for him though.

    Youngs found guilty of contempt; judge orders return of Edwards-Hunter sex tape

    BY BETH VELLIQUETTE

    bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632

    PITTSBORO — Andrew and Cheri Young must turn over the John Edwards sex tape to the court by next Wednesday at 2 p.m., or they will go to jail, a judge told the couple Friday in Chatham County Superior Court.

    Link: http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/5800931/article-Youngs-found-guilty-of-contempt–judge-orders-return-of-Edwards-Hunter-sex-tape?instance=breaking_news

  17. Even Chicago is now wimpier about snow – it seems like we haven’t had a good blizzard in years, and the prospect of 5 or so inches gets the local news worked up into a lather.

    It’s not like the good old days! Now that the statue of limitations has run out, my dad will admit to having driven an abandoned Chicago Transit Authority bus for 20 or 30 feet on Lake Shore Drive in the aftermath of the ’67 blizzard. When I was a kid, during the ’78 blizzard, the courtyard of my apartment building filled up with drifted snow – some of the drifts were about 6′ high, so my friends and I dug a tunnel network through them. Six foot drifts! Abandoned buses! It’s not like the good old days!

    I’m also reminded of all the great Twilight Zone episodes where the slightest glitch (like a power outage) causes a neighborhood to turn on each other (“The Joneses have been acting strangely! They must be in cahoots with the aliens who have cut off our power in preparation for their invasion of earth! Get ’em!”) Let’s hope that during the 24 or so hours that they’re “trapped” in their home by the snow, the Turleys don’t play out such a ‘cabin fever’ psychodrama!

  18. JT:

    “… with hot lattes made by Leslie and passed by the children from the kitchen.”

    *******************

    I will nominate Leslie for sainthood for putting up with a gaggle of young’uns on a snow day–all compounded by hubby in the house. I have been banished to my home office to work on some motion or other.

  19. Ah, New England! Ninety degrees and sunny one day–below forty degrees and sleeting the next. We like meteorological surprises up in these parts. Winter clothes aren’t put away until late spring.

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