Winter weather thread

So most of the nation is locked into some pretty crappy cold weather right now. Living in the Northwest, they're treating this like a Communist invasion, dispatching reporters to all points to point the camera and find people slipping on sidewalks, cars sliding and crashing into others, etc. etc. The week-long build-up last week was bad, but now I think the local stations are running out of ideas and the weather isn't expected to break until next week.

Any other markets like this? Do most other stations still find time to cover actual news?

 

The thing is, that coverage gave us the fantasticness that is the

. (Turn the speakers down before clicking)

 

Pinball.

 

Dan, come visit Down South during the winter. When frozen precipitation falls twice a year, it's the biggest story of the year. Watching the TV types stand around in single digit weather as sleet hits them is quite enjoyable.

 

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/64817/

Fun times in DFW. The freeways are virtual parking lots. About 30 accidents being worked on the freeways alone.

 

Forecast highs for my area the next three days: 67, 73, 72. Brrr

 

It was actually a year ago today (Monday night/Tuesday morning of finals week) that the worst ice storm I have ever lived through hit my town. Two inches on virtually everything, it was only 20 degrees max the entire week and we didn't have power at my house from Tuesday until Sunday, during which time it got rather COLD. I've never worn that much clothing to bed in my life. Thankfully, I was only there until Wednesday because a friend from high school texted me and she finally got power back, so I lit out and stayed at her house for the rest of the week (we all ended up doing that - as soon as a friend would have power, we'd abandon our house for the warmth).

It was crazy though. Tuesday (the only day in four years of schooling that class was ever cancelled), my four roommates and I, not to mention the three guy friends who were also sitting in the dark at their house, were huddled on the same sofa under about three blankets, listening to the radio that we had to power from every leftover battery in the house that we could find. They said that this one street and everything east (which was basically....two streets) was powered up. I was like, "Guys, you know what that means? PIZZA HUT'S OPEN!" Mad dash for coats and shoes ensued and we didn't care about the 3+ hour wait for pizza or the hour and a half we stood in the blissful warm, just waiting for a table, it was inside, the lights were on and the furnace was blowing.

 

-10F this morning with some sunshien but the threat of 6 inches of snow tonight.

I love winter. I love the snow and even when it's bitterly cold, I lijke playing hockey on an outdoor rink. Nothing better than snowshoeing in a quiet forest. And skiing is always too much fun. Add warming up in front of a fire and life is good.

I'm not certain I could live in a place without four seasons, waking up to warm weather and blue skies everyday.

 

About 10 years ago DFW got hit by an ice storm on Christmas Eve, I think it was. 911 had something like 500 accident calls in an hour. I don't think there's a bag of rock salt within 500 miles.

 

Even up here in Toronto the weather gets big play when it's bad. Nice today, cold but sunny. Yesterday at this time it was 8 C but the temps fell as the day went on and the wind picked up. I froze waiting for the bus on the way home.

 

6 above this morning, we'll get into the 20s and we have 3-5 inches of snow expected today.

It's mid-December in central Illinois. You have to expect it.

 

I live in the South. Shortly after I moved here, I was a manager at Burger King. It was usually just an employee I was close friends with and I opening the store in the morning. Well one of those twice a year things hit, and there were a few inches of snow on the ground, i.e., no one was leaving their homes. We had the store up and running a little early, so we (like the goofballs we were) went outside and built a two-foot snowman on the sidewalk. He was decorated with hashbrown eyes, a french toast stick mouth and hashbrown buttons. Atop his head sat a Burger King kids crown.

Our first customer of the day? A news crew. They put the little snowman on the news like he was some kind of winter wonderland celebrity. The little bastard didn't even shout, "Happy Birthday!"