Comments on: Where’s Florence Nightingale when you need her?

By: Annie Mole

Annie Mole — Sat, 31 Jan 2004 02:34:43 +0000

Yes we've had lots of comments about the "OHMIGOD it's snowing - we never knew about the snow in London" reaction from London Transport bods over at my blog and this morning in Metro - London's free commuter paper there was a top lettter: "A quick note to London Underground: the white fluffy stuff currently falling from the sky is called snow. It is not a rain of frogs, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, or Rodan the flying monster. Furthermore it is the right kind of snow (ie the kind that doesn't fall underground), so let's have the trains running properly, eh? And if you are really stuck, give the Swedish transport authorities a call and ask them how they manage to run a seamless, delay-free service through ice, snow and sub-zero temperatures." Cheers (PS thanks to Nick Barlow for bringing this post to my attention).

By: zizka

zizka — Sat, 31 Jan 2004 00:15:12 +0000

Hm. Portland OR USA had more snow than I remember in ~30-35 years here. Montreal reports an unusually cold winter. Meanwhile in Minnesota the winters are unsatisfyingly bland. The times are out of joint. Trivia: The Mongols campaigned in the winter by preference, since the rivers and swamps would be frozen. Napoleon was a weenie.

By: rea

rea — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 14:34:30 +0000

“Two centimetres of snow and the buses are an hour late!” See, that’s the key right there. Here in the nonmetric midwestern US, the snow never falls in centimetres; therefore, no problem! But I would have thought that any true-born Welshman would take a leek on any notions of BRITISH nationalism . . .

By: ChrisS

ChrisS — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 01:48:37 +0000

And here I sit in upstate New York where the expected snow storm total over the next 24 hours is estimated to be 4 to 6 feet. Feet.

By: Yukoner

Yukoner — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 01:18:35 +0000

Everybody knows that Yellowknife has the most extreme weather in Canada. Stuff and nonsense! Why, Yellowknife has never recorded a temperature (a real temperature!)lower than ~~51.2 celsius. That is practically beach and suntanning weather! (And we all know that only temperature counts, not such silly things as fog and whatnot). Yes, weather one~~upmanship is certainly a favourite way to pass the winter.

By: kevin_k

kevin_k — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 00:38:48 +0000

Caught red-handed by a yukoner! I did include the windchill factor. I thought of explaining more fully, but I didn’t think anyone but the Canadians in the audience would understand. Besides, one of the finest pleasures of living in the north is weather one-upmanship. Everybody knows that Yellowknife has the most extreme weather in Canada.

By: Mary Kay

Mary Kay — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 00:24:01 +0000

I was in London in February 1991 when it snowed 4 inches. The entire town shut down. It was—interesting. MKK

By: Yukoner

Yukoner — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 23:47:21 +0000

I was going to put in the obligatory “You think that’s cold?!” post but I see that kevin k in Yellowknife beat me to it. But I think he’s cheating and adding a wind chill factor to the air temperature, Yellowknife only hit minus 44 or so while we got down to minus 49 celsius! But the local radio got some old timers on today to talk about the legendary winter of 1946-47 to remind us youngsters that winters used to really get cold in the old days. A truly astonishing winter, the coldest temperature ever officially recorded in North America (84 below Farenheit) unofficial temperatures (with photos of thermometers) of 88 below, and weeks worth of 60 and 70 below.

By: Scott Martens

Scott Martens — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:05:55 +0000

And none of you had to commute in Belgium this morning. Two centimetres of snow and the buses are an hour late! Honestly! In Canada, we don’t even drive slower when there’s two centimetres of snow.

By: susan

susan — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 20:57:18 +0000

Here in Denver, Colorado, mayors lose elections if they don’t get our streets cleared within 24 hours of a snow storm. They can engage in all kinds of mischief and chicanery and keep winning elections, but we do not tolerate snow clogged streets.

By: Another Damned Medievalist

Another Damned Medievalist — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 20:20:09 +0000

Ah … snow. Funny, we left Eustace station on the Flying Scotsman (neither flying nor Scot) just after Christmas for our honeymoon trip several years back. Delays all the way north—no snow. No delays back, plenty of snow. Go figure. Here in lovely Seattle, they cancelled national programming for the SNOWSTORM. I drove to work both days, from where it dumped 8” overnight at my house and we had tree branches down all over, 35 miles to a campus they closed ten minutes before I arrived, safe and sound. Hmph! Of course I hope y’all realize that the worst side-effect of the snow is this. Thank goodness it’s only the Carling Cup. and Middlesbrough.

By: Casmir Radon

Casmir Radon — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 19:25:25 +0000

Hoowee! There was a rumor of snow here in southeast Tennessee last week. I’m pretty sure the supermarkets started said rumor to boost milk and bread sales. And what are these “trains” you speak of? Just kidding, actually our Representative to Congress (Zach “I was fucked up on drugs before I got fucked up on Jesus” Wamp) ran his last campaign on his efforts to get train service between Chattanooga and Atlanta. Yep, he actually made a failed attempt to get us train service a plank in his campaign. And he won! And my inner syndicalist just must say: Nationalism!? HA! Primitive.

By: kevin_k

kevin_k — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 18:59:07 +0000

Oops. Make that “celsius.” Bloody cold either way.

By: kevin_k

kevin_k — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 18:48:15 +0000

This week in my town (Yellowknife, NWT, Canada) the temperature reached minus 57 celcius. Yesterday I couldn’t see across the street through the ice fog. Frostbite is a constant danger. Even so, buses are running on schedule; children still walk to school.

By: J. Michael Neal

J. Michael Neal — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 18:39:16 +0000

The fun part, once you get out on the prairie (Russians know this, too, but call it something else) is when you get a foot of snow while it’s (Wait, celsius fans here. Subtract 32, multiply by .8, carry the two, and add a half hour if you’re in Newfoundland) 30 degrees below zero. It adds a whole new layer of fun to shovelling the walk. When I grew up in the Northeast, we thought this was too cold to snow. However, if it makes the rest of you feel better, we used to have efficient plowing service here in Minnesota, but Gov. Pawlenty thought it wasn’t nice to make the rest of you so jealous, so he slashed the funding, and now it’s a mess.