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Post by Exildo Wonsetler Briggs III on Feb 1, 2011 22:26:14 GMT -6
How's the weather??  |
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Post by Chicago Jake on Feb 2, 2011 0:26:51 GMT -6
Well, as I look out my window at this exact moment (half past midnight), I see swirling snow, thunder (okay, I'm hearing that, not seeing it), lightning, and hail. Looks like about a foot of snow on the ground so far. We're supposed to get another foot or so before it stops sometime Wednesday afternoon.
Why? How's by you?
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Post by Robin Hood on Feb 2, 2011 15:25:23 GMT -6
We were without power from about 5:30 last night till about noon today, glad we have good old fashioned kerosene heaters, it got cool in the house but never got cold... I passed my time last night reading Chris's book by kerosene lamp... talk about a bad case of DIF... 40 mph wind, 20+ inches of snow with a full blown blizzard outside and reading about home.
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Post by Merlot Joe on Feb 2, 2011 20:24:00 GMT -6
Jake, where is Lake Shore Drive in Chicago? They show a bunch of cars abandoned buried in snow. SNOW |
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Post by Robin Hood on Feb 2, 2011 21:17:05 GMT -6
ROFL, I could be a real smart ass here... but I won't.
LSD runs pretty much the entire lakefront of Chicago
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Post by Merlot Joe on Feb 3, 2011 0:19:04 GMT -6
That's what I figured, but never having been there I thought I would ask.
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Post by Chicago Jake on Feb 3, 2011 0:23:25 GMT -6
Jake, where is Lake Shore Drive in Chicago? They show a bunch of cars abandoned buried in snow.
SNOW The city of Chicago lies on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Lake Shore Drive (aka, LSD) runs along the shore of the lake. So LSD is the major thoroughfare on the eastern edge of the city. It is a very beautiful road and many people enjoy driving on it, but it is by no means an ESSENTIAL road for transportation. All those morons who got stuck on it were dumb-asses who should have known better. When there is nasty weather, LSD always suffers, and all non-morons know to avoid it. |
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 3, 2011 7:45:46 GMT -6
Hopefully the city will hand a nice towing charge to those who abandoned their cars on the LSD when the owners come to claim them (I presume that will be how they finally clear up that mess)
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Post by Chicago Jake on Feb 3, 2011 10:21:41 GMT -6
Yes, they finally towed them out. Some people were "stuck" in their cars for eight or nine hours before abandoning them, which is hilarious. This section of LSD runs along the "Gold Coast" of the city - a hotbed of upscale bars, restaurants, and hotels (including my favorite watering hole, Carmine's Clamhouse on Rush Street). Anyone could get out of their car, walk one block, and be enjoying a hot meal or a cold martini.
The reason LSD gets so much trouble during nasty weather is its proximity to the lake. Waves can wash up over the shore onto the road bed, and it is of course ground-zero for lake-effect snow. Everyone knew that the Big Blow was coming around 3 or 4 pm. What kind of dumbass was driving on this road after 7 pm?
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Post by Chicago Jake on Feb 3, 2011 10:34:03 GMT -6
By the by, there was a local hit song about Lake Shore Drive back in the seventies. It still gets airplay around here. I always wondered if it was ever a hit in other parts of the country?
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Post by Chicago Jake on Feb 3, 2011 11:40:09 GMT -6
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 3, 2011 12:24:23 GMT -6
Thats a real gimme considering everyone else has to pay for towing. At least they should charge for about 10 hours of parking
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Post by New Mama on Feb 3, 2011 13:37:32 GMT -6
Thats a real gimme considering everyone else has to pay for towing. At least they should charge for about 10 hours of parking But of course. Chicago is the quintessential liberal city with freebies for many. The City boasts one of the highest sale and real estate taxes in the country. It will only cost $6 for a half an hour for street meter parking, $8 in an open lot and $16 in a garage. Nasty habits like smoking bring the City over $5 a pack in taxes. Fees….fees galore. Ask any business in the City. You want a sidewalk café…just pay a fee, just be sure you pay for your business license and liquor license twice a year first. And no buying your liquor at any discount house. Each establishment gets regular surprise visits from the liquor commission to be sure each bottle has paid an extra City tax. That goes for soft drinks at local restaurants too. You can’t pick up discounted drinks at Costco or Sam’s Club…you must pay the extra purveyors tax on that pop if you want to sell it. Then there is the extra .25% tax you pay on selling that stuff in your place. The City does very well with these fees. Yep the City can afford to waive these 1,000 or so towing fees. They give the kids in school three meals a day now; provide families with free tax return services and a host of other freebies so why not snow victims who are too dumb to stay away from 70 mile and hour winds in a blizzard. |
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Post by nolaflacav on Feb 3, 2011 14:03:29 GMT -6
If I am "stuck" in the car for eight hours I sure as hell better be experiencing several major snowgasms.
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 3, 2011 14:04:57 GMT -6
Really Anita, dont hold back, use this space to let out your frustrations ;D
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 3, 2011 14:06:06 GMT -6
If I am "stuck" in the car for eight hours I sure as hell better be experiencing several major snowgasms. Just be sure to settle on the price of a snowjob BEFORE you start. |
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 3, 2011 14:26:52 GMT -6
Those pictures of LSD reminded me of something all day, but I just realized what... it looks like some sort of perverse NASCAR event caught in freeze frame.
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Post by innit Geezer on Feb 3, 2011 17:47:17 GMT -6
Here's my patio covered in about 2 feet of snow. It's snowed here once a week for the last 6 weeks or so. It's F-in' cold too and this is a formal complaint.  |
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Post by Robin Hood on Feb 3, 2011 17:47:50 GMT -6
Dug out my truck today... only took me THREE HOURS!! The fucking snowplow had packed the snow in against my truck so tight it was like digging in concrete. Tomorrow I am going to go down to the fertilizer place and see about borrowing their small loader to see about clearing out the rest of my driveway... fuck any more of this shoveling shit, snow like this requires HEAVY EQUIPMENT!!
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Post by innit Geezer on Feb 3, 2011 17:53:18 GMT -6
A night's accumulation on a chair. I should be in Jamaica right now easing into the hot-tub damn it!   |
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Post by innit Geezer on Feb 3, 2011 17:56:54 GMT -6
Anyone for relaxing in a lounger? Tex? Bob? nola?  |
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Post by innit Geezer on Feb 3, 2011 18:03:48 GMT -6
On occasion I'll have a fire outside during a snowstorm, it adds to the romance of a winter night. (as viewed from inside) The pictures were take with my Pre so they aren't the best. Notice how deep the snow is at the fireplace.  |
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Post by innit Geezer on Feb 3, 2011 18:06:15 GMT -6
My aquatic plant collection in hiatus.  |
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Post by innit Geezer on Feb 3, 2011 18:16:38 GMT -6
It's also hard to sleep lately. I have a howling coyote and deer crunching through the snow in the middle of the night.
I feel like I live in a quasi-pseudo-far-out-frozen-Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom kinda place.
I'd rather be at the beach!
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Post by Merlot Joe on Feb 3, 2011 18:52:31 GMT -6
Damn those pictures make me glad I don't live in snow country. Spring will come sooner or later.
Just to let you know 74 here today(should be mid 50's and wet), no rain in sight. We only had 3/4 of an inch of rain in January when we usually get 10 to 15. Things are getting dry out here.
Joe
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Post by innit Geezer on Feb 3, 2011 19:04:06 GMT -6
Joe, You mean you don't have snow-tires on all four corners of your s.u.v.? (just to get out of your driveway) |
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Post by Tex on Feb 3, 2011 19:05:32 GMT -6
It is snowing and in the twenties in Brownsville TX. This is orange and lemon country and where thousands of "Winter Texans" live to escape the cold. Our electric grid is struggling because of excess heat demand and gas supply lines to the power plants freezing up. Tell me again how global warming is doing this.
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Post by Merlot Joe on Feb 3, 2011 20:44:42 GMT -6
Joe, You mean you don't have snow-tires on all four corners of your s.u.v.? (just to get out of your driveway) No way. Should be in four wheel drive running around the vineyards. Instead I have a dust cloud following me. |
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Post by Merlot Joe on Feb 3, 2011 20:46:20 GMT -6
Tell me again how global warming is doing this. Like me grandmother used to say. It's the Russians doing it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Post by Ardbeg... innit on Feb 4, 2011 7:06:18 GMT -6
It is snowing and in the twenties in Brownsville TX. This is orange and lemon country and where thousands of "Winter Texans" live to escape the cold. Our electric grid is struggling because of excess heat demand and gas supply lines to the power plants freezing up. Tell me again how global warming is doing this.SIGH, physics only, class take notes>>> Snow/rain is moisture, moisture that falls out of the air. The atmosphere's ability to hold moisture is directly related to the temperature of the air mass. That is the warmer the air mass the more moisture it can hold. The amount of moisture an air mass can hold doubles approximately every 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit). Hence you take air that is 50% relative humidity (that is, it is holding 50% of what it is capable of holding) and cool it by 18 degrees that moisture is going to start coming out of the air, first as fog or clouds, then if it continues to cool as either rain or snow. The warmer the air mass, the more moisture it can hold, the more it is going to rain/snow when it hits a colder air mass. Storms that originate in cold air hold very little moisture and take much colder air to produce snow. Around here we call them "Alberta Clippers" in part because they develop in the Alberta region, tend to move fast, and in and out in a short time and rarely leave more than 6 inches of very dry snow. The most recent storm and every major storm that has happened along the east coast in the past year have been WARM source storms. They start in much warmer areas and as a result of the physics described above hold MUCH more moisture than they otherwise would have, and hence leave a LOT of wet heavy snow around. Record snow is the result of record moisture. Record moisture is the result of much warmer air masses interacting with colder air. Now, yes it was very cold for Texas standards but not so much for other places to the north. It felt cold in other places like Chicago with the wind chill, but the temps themselves were nothing out of the ordinary. In fact Tex, to show you how warm things were to the north, Dallas on Tuesday was colder than Yellowknife Yukon (record high of 29). Had this been a truly cold source storm Yellowknife would have been in the -45 range and where I live would have been subzero. So, leaving the politics out of this altogether, the physics points towards this and the recent history of record breaking snow storms being the result of warmer air allowing more moisture to collect in the atmosphere, which when cooled results in more snow than we are used to seeing. AS ALWAYS, no single event can be pegged to global climate ch-ch-change, and anyone stating otherwise, ON EITHER SIDE OF THE ARGUMENT, is simply playing politics. General rule of weather: All other things being equal, warmer air produces more precipitation when cooled to a particular temperature, be that rain or snow. |
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