Fogbow

Got our first real snow of the season today. Not sticking to the roads of course, but my lawn is a vast expanse of white. Time to swap the mower and the blower. As for driving in snow - I went to Michigan Tech for three years. 134", 256", and 168" of total snow, respectively. Houghton-Hancock area is like taking Seattle and compressing it to two miles wide. Each side of the canal, there's one way to get to the top, then you take horizontals or downhills from there.

jcolvin2 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 13, 2021 12:18 pm The snow that Seattle gets is usually a product of warm wet moisture coming in off the Pacific (40-55 degrees year round) meeting a mass of sub-freezing dry air coming south from BC and places further north. Almost invariably, the dry cold air hangs around after the snowfall for days, sometimes pushing the temperatures into the low twenties or the teens at night. To the extent that the snow melts during the sunny days following the snowfall, it refreezes at night. Moreover, we have limited snow removal equipment. This results in a lot of our snowfall being driven on and turning to compact ice at night.

I recall one particularly large storm right around Christmas in 2008 or 2009 or thereabouts. My folks were living on Bainbridge Island at the time, out in the more rural part on the north side of the island. They got about twelve inches, though they didn't lose power, which was a surprise. They didn't own a snow shovel (not that a couple of 80-year-olds were exactly rarin' to shovel a 200-foot driveway by hand) and they certainly didn't have a plow service.

When we arrived about 4 days after the storm hit, the county still hadn't plowed anything other than the main state highway that bisects the island. That's because Kitsap County is about the size of Fairfield County, Connecticut, where I live, and it has a grand total of six municipal plow trucks. I'd be surprised if the towns in Fairfield County had fewer than 300 or 400 between them.

Fortunately, by then, the snow was slushy enough that we were able to take the rental car and just bash our way up the (flat) driveway and create a track that they could get out of.

Thanks V. I knew it was windy in WWA, but didn't comprehend how bad it was in other counties. Sounds like Whatcom County (north, on border with Canada), got hammered really bad.



That's a big drop into wild waters. Glad no one had to go there.

Holy F*ck!

In British Columbia-



That rail line and that highway aren't going to be be back in service anytime soon.

More photos here-

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/_pages/ ... 9yb6d.html

Volkonski wrote: ↑Wed Nov 17, 2021 6:03 pm In British Columbia-



That rail line and that highway aren't going to be be back in service anytime soon.

More photos here-

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/_pages/ ... 9yb6d.html

My husband has plans to go fishing up by Fort St James next year. It certainly doesn't look as if he's going to be going our usual way up there .

Canada struggles to reach 18,000 stranded by flood waters

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ ... ce=twitter

Receding flood waters were helping rescue efforts, but the downpour blocked off entire towns in the province of British Columbia and cut access to the country's largest port in Vancouver, disrupting already strained global supply chains.



Residents in Merritt, which has been cut off for almost four days, told CTV on Thursday that waters were starting to drop and a bridge has reopened.

Late on Wednesday, emergency workers were able to temporarily open a narrow road to Hope, which had also been cut off since Sunday. Once people had left, the road would be closed again, the provincial government said.

At one point the city of Abbotsford, to the east of Vancouver, feared the waters would overwhelm their pumping station and force the evacuation of all 160,000 residents.

Florida sinking into the sea.

I know this isn't exactly the right thread, but I think it's appropriate.

U.S. Soccer Has Selected Columbus and St. Paul to Host Critical Home World Cup Qualifiers Against El Salvador and Honduras

With results at home vital to qualifying for the World Cup, U.S. Soccer has selected Columbus, Ohio and St. Paul, Minn. as the venues for the critical World Cup Qualifiers against El Salvador and Honduras.

Lower.com Field will be the site of USA-El Salvador, presented by Volkswagen, on Jan. 27 (ESPN networks, Univision networks). Following the away match against Canada, the U.S. returns to face Honduras on Feb. 2 for the first World Cup Qualifier at Allianz Field. (FS1, Univision networks). Kickoff times will be confirmed in the near future.



Minnesota will become the 21st different state to host a World Cup Qualifier when the USMNT takes on Honduras at Allianz Field. The team makes its second visit to the home of Minnesota United FC, after previously opening the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup with a 4-0 win against Guyana. The stadium has also been the site of two USWNT friendlies against Portugal in September 2019 and Korea Republic just last month.

More at the link.

So why post in the Weather thread? Because they will be playing soccer in Minnesota on Feb 2. In an open arena. Feb 2. St. Paul. Where the average high on that day is 25°. These folks are nuts.

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 8:09 pm So why post in the Weather thread? Because they will be playing soccer in Minnesota on Feb 2. In an open arena. Feb 2. St. Paul. Where the average high on that day is 25°. These folks are nuts.

I think the US selects cities for the men’s qualifying games that it thinks will have a very pro-US crowd to cheer on the team. Historically, if the US were playing a game against an opponent like Mexico, fans of the visiting team often equaled or outnumbered US fans (as soccer is vastly more popular in other CONCAF countries than it is in the US). The US win against Mexico a couple of weeks ago may have been aided by the fact it was played in Columbus (I think), which has a relatively small Latin American population.

But in an open stadium in MSP in the middle of winter? They won't even allow a Super Bowl to be played in Green Bay, since Lambeau is an open stadium.

zekeb wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 7:31 am But in an open stadium in MSP in the middle of winter? They won't even allow a Super Bowl to be played in Green Bay, since Lambeau is an open stadium.

Maybe the powers that be figure Honduras can’t play in the bitter cold?

To increase attendance they need crowd amenities. In Florida they have things like pools in their stadiums. In Minnesota they should install ice fishing pools. Tip-up Stadium.

The stadium, instead of having a parking lot it full of cars they will have the area filled with snowmobiles.

They can clear the field with Zamboni's. They have plenty to spare up there.