It's snowing, oh no!

[zogger]

exactly! southern states getting snow is completely different, mostly because they don't have the equipment to deal with it...because its not something that happens often! places like NE that get snow EVERY year have gone ****ing insane over the weather forecasts!
if you don't have enough sense to tell yourself that going out in the snow with a vehicle designed to at the very worst drive on wet roads, never mind likely never having driven in the snow before, is a good idea, then you deserve what you get!

this crazy man killing blizzard has put a whopping 2 whole inches down in my area...even less west of me, good thing the entire state is shut down and there's a travel ban in effect...no idea how we are going to dig ourselves out of this one

Ok, here's a challenge! Want to get filthy stinking rich, way beyond the dreams of avarice? Easey peasey. If you, or anyone else here criticizing the weather predictions can consistently do a better job, here's your ticket! Let's see what ya got. Should be a cakewalk, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_derivative

Or, just start your own prediction service, tons of companies will buy your product over the NOAA/NWS efforts.

 

[fixit1960]

Here's another slant on it. Most news cast are paid for by sponsors. Those sponsors sell goods. How do you motivate people to go out and buy something? Tell them there is a snow storm coming and everything may be snowed in for a day or 2. The people here just flock to the store to buy more salt, snow shovels, gas, cigs, milk, oh better get another snow shovel. movies, cause were gonna be snowed in! Popcorn candy, better get another snow shovel. It spurs spending better than a tax free holiday......

A lot of it's used to drive the economy...

I say let the unprepared suffer, best learning tool in the box....maybe they'd grow a brain and think ahead. I personally know people who shop nightly for there supper groceries. I still buy a weeks worth at a time and have enough on hand for a couple weeks before we get into the canned stuff..

Just my opinion. But I do get tired of the sky is falling mantra.

 

[NSMaple1]

I dunno about you guys 'down there' - but it's pretty darn nasty out the doors on all sides of my house right now. There are walls of white going past at 50mph. Going to be some big ass drifts when they hit the woods. I don't think this one is so much about the snow depths, but the cold temps & high winds coming with it. But, I also don't think we get the media hype in the lead-up like you guys 'down there' do either. It is a bit amusing to flip to the US TV stations sometimes - and not just on weather issues.

 

[slowp]

.

It's also a slow news day so of course the storm is getting top billing. Maybe a volcano will erupt in the PNW so they have something exciting to talk about.

No thank you. Although maybe we'd get a quicker announcement on what the ash cloud is. That didn't happen in 1980. I was visiting my mom and dad, we saw a big black cloud coming up the coulee. It looked like it would rain and storm, but the barometer read high. My dad had the TV going and there was nothing. We figured it out when the ash began to fall. There was no interruption on TV until it hit Spokane. That's where the TV stations were out of.

The ash is not fun to deal with. I'll take snow any day over ash.

 

[1project2many]

Here's another slant on it. Most news cast are paid for by sponsors. Those sponsors sell goods. How do you motivate people to go out and buy something? Tell them there is a snow storm coming and everything may be snowed in for a day or 2. The people here just flock to the store to buy more salt, snow shovels, gas, cigs, milk, oh better get another snow shovel. movies, cause were gonna be snowed in! Popcorn candy, better get another snow shovel. It spurs spending better than a tax free holiday......

A lot of it's used to drive the economy...

I say let the unprepared suffer, best learning tool in the box....maybe they'd grow a brain and think ahead. I personally know people who shop nightly for there supper groceries. I still buy a weeks worth at a time and have enough on hand for a couple weeks before we get into the canned stuff..

Just my opinion. But I do get tired of the sky is falling mantra.

OMG!!! Peanut Butter shortage!!!!!!

 

[4x4American]

Here's what I don't like, the governor made it a MISDEMEANOR to drive after a certain time last night, and there was no snow. That's bologna.

 

[lone wolf]

Here's another slant on it. Most news cast are paid for by sponsors. Those sponsors sell goods. How do you motivate people to go out and buy something? Tell them there is a snow storm coming and everything may be snowed in for a day or 2. The people here just flock to the store to buy more salt, snow shovels, gas, cigs, milk, oh better get another snow shovel. movies, cause were gonna be snowed in! Popcorn candy, better get another snow shovel. It spurs spending better than a tax free holiday......

A lot of it's used to drive the economy...

I say let the unprepared suffer, best learning tool in the box....maybe they'd grow a brain and think ahead. I personally know people who shop nightly for there supper groceries. I still buy a weeks worth at a time and have enough on hand for a couple weeks before we get into the canned stuff..

Just my opinion. But I do get tired of the sky is falling mantra.

I know I filled all my trucks up with gas and
diesel. That ain't cheap.

 

[4x4American]

Here's another slant on it. Most news cast are paid for by sponsors. Those sponsors sell goods. How do you motivate people to go out and buy something? Tell them there is a snow storm coming and everything may be snowed in for a day or 2. The people here just flock to the store to buy more salt, snow shovels, gas, cigs, milk, oh better get another snow shovel. movies, cause were gonna be snowed in! Popcorn candy, better get another snow shovel. It spurs spending better than a tax free holiday......

True. First thing that gets sold out around here is beer. So I make sure to keep at least a weeks supply on hand at a time.

 

[zogger]

Here's another slant on it. Most news cast are paid for by sponsors. Those sponsors sell goods. How do you motivate people to go out and buy something? Tell them there is a snow storm coming and everything may be snowed in for a day or 2. The people here just flock to the store to buy more salt, snow shovels, gas, cigs, milk, oh better get another snow shovel. movies, cause were gonna be snowed in! Popcorn candy, better get another snow shovel. It spurs spending better than a tax free holiday......

A lot of it's used to drive the economy...

I say let the unprepared suffer, best learning tool in the box....maybe they'd grow a brain and think ahead. I personally know people who shop nightly for there supper groceries. I still buy a weeks worth at a time and have enough on hand for a couple weeks before we get into the canned stuff..

Just my opinion. But I do get tired of the sky is falling mantra.

On the densely populated east coast, as little as ten miles makes a huge difference. The professional weather guys do the best they can, ten miles off shore, two feet of snow, oh well, meh, ten miles inland, turns into a big deal for milllions of people. They go with what they have, and have been getting it better and better over the years. That they 100% don't get it exactly everytime, sure, but it is much better than years ago.

But like I said, no matter if they miss it some highball or lowball, they take constant grief over it from both directions.

If they highball it and it isn't as severe, they get criticism like that "sky is falling" comment. If they lowball it, and once it happens, they get criticized like "why weren't we warned, why do we pay millions in taxes for this?"...

It's weather, the amount of large scale variables is hugemongous. This is some pretty hard stuff to get extremely accurate. Real dang hard, harder than rocket surgery. Even with super computers, satellites, thousands of guys crunching the data, it's still hard. I think they do a pretty fair job most of the time, and when it is off one way or the other a little, big deal, it is loads better than at any other time in human history.

And I'll repeat my challenge, if anyone can do a better job than the US weather service, offer and sell your product publicly, you'll get a lot of big bucks subscribers, or make it big on the weather futures exchanges and keep your secrets inhouse. I'll invest cash money into your fund once you have an established verifiable track record, because you'll be making billion$.

 

[Ironworker]

I know I filled all my trucks up with gas and
diesel. That ain't cheap.

It could be if the price of oil starts rising again.

 

[lone wolf]

It could be if the price of oil starts rising again.

I think it will hold for a short while. Gas is 1.69 Diesel is 2.55 here not bad.

 

[fixit1960]

On the densely populated east coast, as little as ten miles makes a huge difference. The professional weather guys do the best they can, ten miles off shore, two feet of snow, oh well, meh, ten miles inland, turns into a big deal for milllions of people. They go with what they have, and have been getting it better and better over the years. That they 100% don't get it exactly everytime, sure, but it is much better than years ago.

But like I said, no matter if they miss it some highball or lowball, they take constant grief over it from both directions.

If they highball it and it isn't as severe, they get criticism like that "sky is falling" comment. If they lowball it, and once it happens, they get criticized like "why weren't we warned, why do we pay millions in taxes for this?"...

It's weather, the amount of large scale variables is hugemongous. This is some pretty hard stuff to get extremely accurate. Real dang hard, harder than rocket surgery. Even with super computers, satellites, thousands of guys crunching the data, it's still hard. I think they do a pretty fair job most of the time, and when it is off one way or the other a little, big deal, it is loads better than at any other time in human history.

And I'll repeat my challenge, if anyone can do a better job than the US weather service, offer and sell your product publicly, you'll get a lot of big bucks subscribers, or make it big on the weather futures exchanges and keep your secrets inhouse. I'll invest cash money into your fund once you have an established verifiable track record, because you'll be making billion$.

Zogger, I'm not beating on the weatherman so much. I know they have a job to do and it's not easy because of the many variables but if I didn't have any better success rate at accurately diagnosing a sick engine in a car or truck then they do predicting the weather I'd be out of a job. I think they purposely predict doom and gloom, If it misses us they say "oh boy we missed that" and if it happens they say "well you heard it here"! They can't lose the way they are forecasting. My biggest complaint is the 24/7 coverage and the hysteria it breeds in the population. Closing schools and roads and implementing curfews? Come on, this is Iowa it's gonna snow, it's gonna get cold. If you don't like it move to Washington State.. oh no, slowp didn't see that right?

 

[mu2bdriver]

In CT, weather people are as much entertainers as meteorologists. They are the primary seller of advertising space for their network, work to appeal to their desired demographic, peddle stray and homeless pets, add mundane comments to filler segments, and awkwardly flirt with the traffic babe. The best takeaway from their 'miscalculations' is the irony that so many of them believe that man is destroying the planet via economic activities yet they readily admit that there are more unknowns than knowns when it comes to weather...but it's still man's fault. Less than a foot in Hartford.

 

[slowp]

Zogger, I'm not beating on the weatherman so much. I know they have a job to do and it's not easy because of the many variables but if I didn't have any better success rate at accurately diagnosing a sick engine in a car or truck then they do predicting the weather I'd be out of a job. I think they purposely predict doom and gloom, If it misses us they say "oh boy we missed that" and if it happens they say "well you heard it here"! They can't lose the way they are forecasting. My biggest complaint is the 24/7 coverage and the hysteria it breeds in the population. Closing schools and roads and implementing curfews? Come on, this is Iowa it's gonna snow, it's gonna get cold. If you don't like it move to Washington State.. oh no, slowp didn't see that right?

Well, you obviously don't know much about our climate, do you? We get snow. We have several different climates. If you don't live here, that's hard to comprehend. Our little sparsely populated area made the national news in 2007 or therebouts when we had so much snow the mill roof caved in, along with lots of shop roofs. In my part of the state, the snow is quite heavy. We'd gotten a dump of enough to be above the belly of The Used Dog that winter. Then, on top of that heavy Cascade Concrete, which is the skier's term for it, we'll get rain. That's why our county folks are in a hurry to plow and get it off the roads before the glop gets gloppier. In the mountains--which are nearby and I can be up at 4500 feet in an hour, we get big dumps of snow. I have wallowed and floundered through a new dump of waist high snow. I have worked on snowshoes because without them, I'd disappear. Look up the historical snowfall levels for Paradise, on Mt. Rainier.

Then there's the east of the mountains side of the state, where the climate is more like Montana. They can get big dumps of snow and frigid temperatures. You can tell the areas where snow is the usual winter fare by all the metal roofs. Whomph.

Nope, don't move here. We get snow. We could use some now. Our snowpack is way below normal up in the high country. We hope that it will be like the seahawks last game, we'll start getting dumps of snow at the last minute. That's what happened last year.

I realize real mountains and the various climates they cause are hard for flatlanders to understand. Just think of it as we can get lots of snow here, and we have to drive on steep grades when it snows. So, it is the law that you must carry chains with you when driving the mountain passes from Nov. 1 to April somethingth. Most of us also carry a sleeping bag, extra water, food, and a shovel. The mountains are not something to take lightly.

 

[slowp]

To understand the western mountain climate, a good read is Ordeal By Hunger, the story of the Donner Party. If you can get that electronically, that would be good to read during your snowstorm. Also read up on The Wellington Disaster. Then, not snow, but you can google The Columbus Day Storm for more weather education.

 

[fixit1960]

Well, you obviously don't know much about our climate, do you? We get snow. We have several different climates. If you don't live here, that's hard to comprehend. Our little sparsely populated area made the national news in 2007 or therebouts when we had so much snow the mill roof caved in, along with lots of shop roofs. In my part of the state, the snow is quite heavy. We'd gotten a dump of enough to be above the belly of The Used Dog that winter. Then, on top of that heavy Cascade Concrete, which is the skier's term for it, we'll get rain. That's why our county folks are in a hurry to plow and get it off the roads before the glop gets gloppier. In the mountains--which are nearby and I can be up at 4500 feet in an hour, we get big dumps of snow. I have wallowed and floundered through a new dump of waist high snow. I have worked on snowshoes because without them, I'd disappear. Look up the historical snowfall levels for Paradise, on Mt. Rainier.

Then there's the east of the mountains side of the state, where the climate is more like Montana. They can get big dumps of snow and frigid temperatures. You can tell the areas where snow is the usual winter fare by all the metal roofs. Whomph.

Nope, don't move here. We get snow. We could use some now. Our snowpack is way below normal up in the high country. We hope that it will be like the seahawks last game, we'll start getting dumps of snow at the last minute. That's what happened last year.

I realize real mountains and the various climates they cause are hard for flatlanders to understand. Just think of it as we can get lots of snow here, and we have to drive on steep grades when it snows. So, it is the law that you must carry chains with you when driving the mountain passes from Nov. 1 to April somethingth. Most of us also carry a sleeping bag, extra water, food, and a shovel. The mountains are not something to take lightly.

Sounds interesting and diverse. Maybe the jet stream will change and you'll get your share before the seasons over. I figured it would be a little more milder than your describing. Maybe more like Seattle.

 

[svk]

Zogger, I'm not beating on the weatherman so much. I know they have a job to do and it's not easy because of the many variables but if I didn't have any better success rate at accurately diagnosing a sick engine in a car or truck then they do predicting the weather I'd be out of a job. I think they purposely predict doom and gloom, If it misses us they say "oh boy we missed that" and if it happens they say "well you heard it here"! They can't lose the way they are forecasting. My biggest complaint is the 24/7 coverage and the hysteria it breeds in the population. Closing schools and roads and implementing curfews? Come on, this is Iowa it's gonna snow, it's gonna get cold. If you don't like it move to Washington State.. oh no, slowp didn't see that right?

Exactly!!!!!

 

[Hinerman]

I am going to 100% defend the professional weather guys over the armchair quarterbacks.

This is obvious why they do this, and it's because when they LOWBALL storms, it really does cause mass chaos and people freaking die from it.

THIS^^^^It is obvious where I live so you know snow is not our concern, occasionally ice is, but the real fear is tornados. No need to candy coat a potential tornado. Most of the warnings are for tornados that never occur. I have been in the neighbors basement several times for no more than some strong wind. But occassionally the forecastors save lives. I remember watching the news clips from the big 1999 tornado in OKC. The forcasters were saying---Get underground now or you will die!!! There is no safe place but underground!!! You have 15 minutes to get underground!!! While it was unfortunate for the 36 lives that were lost, it could have been significantly worse for a town of about 1.4 million, not including the surrounding towns that were also hit.

 

[slowp]

Some Warshington State history. The Wellington Train Disaster. A passenger train on it's way to Seattle and a freight train were stopped on the west side of the Cascades because of heavy snowfall. Six days later, a slab avalanche occurred.

 

[fixit1960]

Some Warshington State history. The Wellington Train Disaster. A passenger train on it's way to Seattle and a freight train were stopped on the west side of the Cascades because of heavy snowfall. Six days later, a slab avalanche occurred.

Beautiful place in the summer. Very deadly in the winter when conditions are right. Thanks for the movie post. Interesting history. In our area it's the Mississippi river flooding and tornadoes that we deal with.