There must be a huge difference between Toronto and Waterloo, then. We’ve had days in the past couple years that were so bad (one day one of my brother’s co-workers died in a crash trying to drive to work in freezing rain; another there was nearly 2 feet of snowfall and nearly every car I saw was immobile) that it definitely warranted school and workplaces closing, but everything was still open, nobody batted an eye. I always hear a few people gripe about the weather, but generally people here seem to be pretty adaptable to winter storms.
I saw that mess. I went to Target in Hudson around 4:30 - 5:00 and the freeway was at a dead stop. That had to suck being in there. Luckily, I live on the north side of 94 so I could witness it but not get involved.
I agree about the news. It’s not the end of the world, and I find that the people don’t take them seriously anymore - we go out in it, no matter what. My city is guilty, IMO, of overdoing the storm sirens. When I was a kid it seemed they only went off if a tornado was spotted in the vicinity - now we get them if there is a strong wind on the other side of the county! St. Croix County is rather large, so we get the sirens often. No one takes them seriously anymore because they sound them so often.
Weather happens.
There is a big difference. Waterloo is more up into the snow belt so you guys get hit a little harder than we do. I remember in my younger years driving up to Fullerton, and in passing through Waterloo we were hit full-frontal with whiteout conditions. We had to stop into a roadside diner to wait it out until visibility was a little more than a few car-lengths before we could head out again. It was quite bad, but I seem to recall no one there complaining about it any more than was warranted.
If Toronto got hit that bad, you can bet the entire bloody city would come to a grinding halt.
Ahhh, Jay Trobek and VIPER. Eases the pain.
While we have had no snow, are not expecting any snow and will get no snow I have to agree that A) weather forecasting sucks knobs off donkeys AND B) Isn’t the weather just fucked up now!
I blame the franch and their damn nuclear testing 
Not so much worried about the weather, ghastly as it may be. But there are unsettling signs of climate changes. Crows, for instance. For some reason, our trees are full of crows. Not just one or two, but dozens of raucous, noisy crows. Songbirds, they are not.
And seagulls, for some Godonlyknows reason! They have the advantages of high flight, which adds to the intensity when they deliver thier, ah, “payload”. Spatter patterns, and so on. Yet I see thousands of these misplaced creatures, far more suited to coastal environments than to the Great Flat. I wish they all could be California gulls…
Better than geese. Gawd those bastards are a pain and then some!
Hey everybody, looks like another snow storm is coming tonight! Let the media frenzy begin.
Actually, as long as Belinda is doing the weather they can spend the whole newscast on the storm for all I care.
Friends, friends, friends! Do not despair. Spring is surly coming. All of the signs and portents are present.
The Iowa State Legislature is in session. It is the most magnificent and impressive assemblage of village idiots in the Western World. It will go on until the per diem money runs out or spring field work commences. The fact that it is meeting is a sure sign that someday it will give up and go home – restoring our particular village idiot to the bosom of his community.
The mangled carcases of road killed racoons, possums and cats are emerging from the dried weeds of the highway margins.
The grit the highway department scattered on the roads all winter is blowing in the wind.
The Great Horned Owl made its annual stop in the grove behind the house a week or two ago before moving on to the pine forests of the Northern Wilderness.
The cats are wildly copulating in the barn yard.
The Girls State Basketball Tournament is history – as usual it was won by the team that fell down the least. The Boys Tournament is going on this week. As soon as it is over the High School Track season starts and spring is here.
Best of all. Yesterday noon a huge flock of blackbirds descended on the grove and hay field – hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of Red Wings and Startling and Grackles and God alone knows what else – all whistling and croaking and chirping and generally flopping around until a guy couldn’t hear himself think. By evening they were gone– I suppose headed north at the rate of fifteen miles a day.
Even though we are predicted to get three to six inches of snow tonight we can all rest content in the thought that within another two or three weeks the grass will be greening, the trees and bushes will bud and the soft, mellow warmth, the smell of damp earth and new growth, will envelop us all. The Earth will swing on its axis and all will be well – except for those chronic complainers in Minnesota, they’re never happy. Sea Gulls, indeed!
::: wipes a tear away :::
You, sir, are awesome.
I get the same way about this time each year.
You just might be on to something…
In Saskatchewan we just recorded the warmest winter on record ever. We had almost no snow or cold temperatures until this month. I think we plugged in the vehicles less than 5 times until March. We’re actually getting into the -30C range with the windchill - starting to feel like winter. laughs
I’m a Shawn Cable fan, myself.
Mid-March and it’s your* first* winter storm this year?? That is news.
We had one go by 2-3 days ago. I’m so sick of snow I didn’t even bother shoveling the 3-4 inches off. It’s gone now.
When Papa T. grew up in a really, really small town near Thief River Falls, apparently the snow was hip-deep to a giraffe nearly every year. He’s told me tales of buildings on one side of the street being invisible in a snowbank, the other side being completely clear; of having to dig up from the door to get out of the house; and best of all, the time a really bad blizzard blew in from an unexpected direction, and he, at 16, and another teenager had to get on snowmobiles, traveling at about 1 mph holding a rope between them, and use compasses and fencelines to find their way to a farmer’s house 1.5 miles away to deliver insulin to him.
Now THAT is Minnesota weather.
Winter is gersticken around
Loud sing “Goddam!”
Spring is toofucken slow
Loud sing “Goddam!”
- verses inscribed on the Fergus Falls Runestone. (Academics debate its provenance and authenticity.
The local news in Omaha is as inane as Minnesota’s.
All of this dumbing-down of the term “severe weather” is going to lead to people ignoring warnings of really serious stuff like killer blizzards and tornados some day.
Actually, we have just the opposite problem that you Minnesotans in the Sioux Falls area have. Our TV news people spend an inordinate amount of time telling Omahans about Grand Island, North Platte, and Sioux City weather warnings–despite the fact that all of these areas have their own TV stations and none can pick up Omaha TV–even via cable–anyway.
Yea, but the Blackbirds are still here. Afraid to go north, apparently.
Well it’s Minnesota. What other news is there?
(and yes, I was born and lived my first 10 years in that state!)
Don’t tell the 'Murkins, but after being on these boards for damn near six years now, I have come to the conclusion that the worst winters in any state in the contiguous U.S. is not as bad as your average winter on the Prairies. Somehow we’ve gotten the idea that the Northern states get bad winters (I blame television for this misconception), but they just aren’t as bad as ours usually* are. Shh.
*This year being the massive exception.
You know, we don’t really get school and work closings here. It’s pretty much left up to our own discretion - if you can’t actually get your car out of the driveway, you call in and tell them you’re not coming. If there’s anyone there to take the call. After a big snowfall, people not showing up for work is pretty normal and expected.
Rysdad, there will be no surly coming on Belinda, mmmkay?