I wrote this Thursday, February 7th 2013. As the media was scaring the shit out of people over the impending doom of a snowstorm. I am late in posting it.
*****
We are supposed to get a Winter storm starting tomorrow night. To listen to the media it is the apocalypse coming. They keep reminding people of how bad White Juan was when it hit in 2004.
White Juan was a devastating winter storm. In Halifax, 95.5 cm of snow fell in one day. Winds gusted from 60-80 KPH, with some bursts recorded at 120 KPH. A weather station in Halifax recorded 2 10-second gusts of 147 KPH. With the snow that came down the next day the total snowfall in 48 hours was around 120 cm with some drifts higher than 2.5 metres. It took a long time for the Province to recover from that.
Now we look at the present. Last Monday Halifax got about 10 cm of snow. Schools were cancelled. Doom and gloom was spread by the media. For 10 fucking cm of snow! I drove to work when the "storm " was at its worst ... and had little trouble. By the time I went home the roads were pretty much cleared up. Unless you were a fucking idiot and drove too fast for the conditions, and we have a LOT of those here, you shouldn't have had any trouble.
The Saturday before we had 10-15 cm. Once again, it wasn't that bad if you didn't drive like a moron. By the time I was driving home it had turned to rain. Within an hour the roads were BARE. Yet when the weather forecasters talk about that period of time they refer to storms. Massive storms. Weather bombs. On Wednesday they were talking about how we were still digging out. Yes, some areas, like Newfoundland, got a LOT more snow than we did. THEY were digging out in areas. Halifax? Hell no.
Now we are getting dire predictions of White Juan like proportions from some media outlets. What are we supposed to get? 20-35 cm of snow starting late Friday night with most of it hitting Saturday. So, lets call that a 36 hour period of time. The wind will gust from 30-45 KPH overnight and may gust up to 60 KPH Saturday. If you listen to the weather forecasters you should prepare for Snowmageddon. Seriously, this is how the fucktards are building this up.
White Juan Friday/Saturday
95.5 CM in 24 hours 120 CM in 48 hours 20-35 CM of snow in 26 hours
main winds 60-80 KPH main winds 30-45 KPH
Yeah, it REALLY sounds like another White Juan. (Can you feel the sarcasm?) It sounds like what we would call in the 90's, before the pussification of Canada, a bad winter storm. Some form of Snowmageddon? Fuck off.
Now the media gets their basic weather information from Environment Canada. Then they put their spin on it whether for current weather or predicting future weather. Here is what Environment Canada has to say while the media meteorologists are predicting total doom and gloom.
Halifax Metro and Halifax County West
3:33 PM AST Thursday 07 February 2013
Winter storm watch for Halifax Metro and Halifax County West issued
Strong winds, snow and blowing snow beginning late Friday night and intensifying on Saturday.
This is an alert to the potential development of dangerous winter weather conditions in these regions. Monitor weather conditions..listen for updated statements.
A low pressure system will intensify as it passes near Cape Hatteras on Friday before tracking south of Nova Scotia Saturday night.
This system will give snow at times heavy, strong northeast winds and blowing snow to Nova Scotia Friday night and Saturday. These conditions will persist Saturday night and into Sunday morning for Cape Breton and Eastern Nova Scotia. While it is too early to give an accurate estimate of snowfall potential, some guidance is indicating that amounts in excess of 30 centimetres are possible for parts of Nova Scotia. Also there may be periods of ice pellets or freezing rain along the Atlantic coast starting Saturday and extending into Sunday over eastern regioins.
Strong northeasterlies and northerlies over the Gulf of St. Lawrence may also give higher than normal water levels late Saturday and into Sunday, and will push pack ice into north to northeast facing shorelines.
In other words, it could be a bad storm but it is too early to say for sure. Be prepared. I understand that the media panders to fear for ratings but this fear mongering is ridiculous.
****
As I wrote this, in the aftermath of the ... winter storm we got the ... fact the media does nothing but fear monger remains strong. Or is stronger. I heard words like White Juan, Snowmageddon, and Weather Bomb bandied about by various media outlets. It was all a lot of BS. What we got hit by was what we would have called back in the 90's a snow storm. Nothing more. Nothing less. It was not the next White Juan. It was not some cataclysmic event. It was a god damn winter storm. That is all.
Canadians have become pussified to winter. The media helps this happen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment