When I started TYWKIWDBI in 2007, the first post indicated that the purpose was "to compile for the amusement of my friends an eclectic collection of gleanings from the internet..." That's still the case, so this post today goes out to my schoolmates from the class of 1964.
I've been exchanging emails recently with Pete W, who for education and career reasons became an expat from Minnesota and now lives in Roanoke, Virginia, near the foothills of the Appalachians. I thought his comments the other day were informative:
"As far as our weather, I told the man who came to clear our relatively short driveway and spent FIVE hours doing only 70% of it, "I'm from Minnesota and I have never seen anything like this."Saturday night past we had four inches of snow. Sunday at 1:00 we started 17 consecutive hours of freezing rain. End result was 4+ inches of frozen solid ice anchored to the sidewalks, streets, driveways, and ground everywhere. I've said for many years that 1/2 inch of ice is worse than a foot of snow, but this was 4 full inches of frozen solid (not just the top) ice. My yard is so slick it's truly like a skating rink that has just been Zambonied! We are still digging out. No mail delivery until we clear access to our mailboxes, and today -- finally after 5 days -- I was able to pickaxe out that ice. Flat out brutal, and being a Gopher was of no use. Amazing. Schools still closed, of course, since buses can't go anywhere."
Apparently more bad weather is heading that way. Just an FYI to classmates.
People in the north, where they are used to snow, sincerely underestimate the problems with ice. Especially in places that don't see cold weather a lot. See: Nashville.
ReplyDeleteSituation in DC is miserable as well. It seems that after Monday all the snow crews just congratulated themselves and stopped doing anything after they cleared the main roads. Meanwhile, the side-roads and sidewalks are turning into uneven ice-rings. They also are unfamiliar here with the concept of snow removal. They can only plow.
Nerd-alert: It's a good example of how phase-transitions are not always between gas-liquid-solid. Snow->ice is definitively a phase-transition even though they're both solids.