Bogus Weather Hype

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Colin W Kingsbury wrote:

Chains!? Where do they get them? I grew up in upstate NY, on a steep
dirt
road that often iced over, and I don't think we even owned a set of
chains,
let alone put them on cars.

I've been told that they're illegal in New Jersey - that may also be the
case in
New York. I have at least two sets I acquired in Georgia and Tennessee. I
stumble across them in the garage every so often.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble
enterprise.

With some combinations of wet snow over ice, like we get more often than not
in NC, with a 2 wheel drive truck or van (light in the back) you will not go
anywhere without chains. I carry mine all winter long. (full sized Chevy
work van)

I drove for many years in Ohio snow with little problems in the snow, but I
have discovered that "all snow is not created equal". It is really wicked,
most of the time, around here. Some of the problem also lies in the fact
that since we get less snow, it is not economical to have mega tons of salt
on hand, and not a plethora of snow plow trucks in the sheds.
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

I drove for many years in Ohio snow with little problems in the snow, but
I
have discovered that "all snow is not created equal". It is really
wicked,
most of the time, around here.

Amen. Forgive me while I get something off my chest....

I get irritated with folks who move here (NC) from more snow ridden areas
and make fun of the local population's ability to cope with the "wintery
mix". They make fun until we get snow and they realize that the roads don't
get plowed around here. They don't get salted in a timely manner either.
Then the snow turns to ice and, I don't care where you came from, you can't
drive safely on ice. Winter storms in NC really are something to take
seriously. Many times, we only get the ice. Ice storms REALLY suck because
we usually lose power and the roads are simply impassable.

Admittedly, lots of times, we don't get a lot of snow and it is really easy
to get around in what does fall. But you would be amazed at how many people
wreck around here in light snow and ice. Most of the wrecks are
multi-vehicle accidents so you have to reason that if you go driving, you
stand a chance of getting nailed through no fault of your own. That's the
point that I try to drive home to the folks who like to make fun. *You* may
be able to drive in the snow, but it's not much help when your on-coming
traffic is a conversion van that's careening out of control (personal
experience here).

Many of my friends, neighbors, and co-workers are from up north. After a
couple of winters here, NONE of them make fun anymore.

The key to dealing with winter in NC is to treat snow as a good thing. We
don't get it often, it's pretty, and it doesn't stay long. If work isn't
cancelled, I tell my boss that I'll be in late (after all the wrecks are
cleared out).

A good snow in NC is God's way of telling everyone to chill, sit by the fire
and have a hot chocolate.

-Trent
PP-ASEL

P.S. Ice storms come from Satan

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 00:53:01 GMT, "G.R. Patterson III"
wrote:



Colin W Kingsbury wrote:

Chains!? Where do they get them? I grew up in upstate NY, on a steep dirt
road that often iced over, and I don't think we even owned a set of chains,
let alone put them on cars.

I've been told that they're illegal in New Jersey - that may also be the case in
New York. I have at least two sets I acquired in Georgia and Tennessee. I
stumble across them in the garage every so often.

George Patterson

I have a set for my Tacoma that I only rarely use, and only then when
I need to plow out the driveway. They are a PITA to install but can
make the difference between managing to plow out some heavy slippery
slush and getting stuck.

I hate putting them on because I only use them for about 45 minutes,
then have to remove them because I use the truck to commute to work.

It takes a lot of time to install them because if you don't do it
properly, they can rip off things like your brake caliper bleed screw.
Ask me how I know this...

Corky Scott

"Corky Scott" wrote

It takes a lot of time to install them because if you don't do it
properly, they can rip off things like your brake caliper bleed screw.
Ask me how I know this...

Corky Scott

The chains' best friends are 4 (per wheel) heavy short black rubber bungee
cords. Added to properly adjusted chains, they make all the difference.
--
Jim in NC

Rant=overboard

It's absolutely become a joke, and it has what should be the smarter public
officials acting like Chicken Little. We've had a total of about 12 inches
of snow this year in central Wisconsin. 8 inches of that came in one night.
It's actually all melted now and everything is ice covered. The snowmobile
trails are closed because there isn't any snow, but I bet we've had over 20
winter storm warnings and watches. We had one yesterday, it didn't even
snow last night or today. I'm sure we'll have a few issued tonight. My
television screen has burning across the bottom from the Winter Storm
Warning ticker.

No school here this past Monday. Too much ice. Funny how our 55 employees
all made it to work. Funny how they made it to work alive, heck nobody even
ran in the ditch! Funny how the 10 semi's we loaded all delivered their
loads all around the state and then miraculously made here to pick up our
loads. Funny how every other business around was able to operate, but the
business of educating our kids has to stop every time the sun doesn't shine.
When I was little and lived in town, they would still have school for the
kids that could walk to school, even if they couldn't pick up the kids on
the bus route. Nowadays the "norm" is school is cancelled and you listen to
the radio to find out the days that you actually HAVE school! If it does
start snowing, more often then not, they will cancel school but keep the
kids there just until after lunch because then they can count it as a full
school day.

And it isn't just in the winter, the weathermen do the same thing in the
summer. If we would get 1/10th of the rain, hail, thunderstorms, high
winds, and tornados that they predict, this state wouldn't be fit to live
in.

Just off of MSNBC in a desperate million word per minute fashion...."So in
addition to the rain and the snow and the freezing temperatures that will be
blasting the midwest and moving up into New England, we will get all the
effects of those conditions as well, with over 10 to 12 inches of snow
expected for much of the area....." No ****?? Really? Now that's a
newsflash... never before have I had to experience the actual effects of the
rain, snow, freezing temperatures and bitter windchills... somehow it was
all surreal.... All that stuff must have happened while I was in school.

Oh, and if I hear the term "Wintery Mix" one more time, I think I'm going to
gag.

As far as weathermen being nuts... our local weatherman years ago was
actually arrested two or three times for public nudity.

Jim

We had the same doom and gloom reports of people running to the stores to
hoard bread and batteries, since we have up to three inches of snow forecast
here in eastern Wisconsin!

I don't get it- this is Wisconsin in winter, aren't we supposed to get snow
and not flip out? I think the worst part about any snow accumulation is the
fact that I'll need to shovel in front of the hangar door before it gets
frozen and impossible to remove.

Don't the networks and local news people have anything better for the
current news cycle?


"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:CgZCd.620242$wV.514014@attbi_s54...
Is it just me, or does it seem like weather forecasting has gone off the
deep end?

Once again, we've been deluged with "Winter Storm Warnings" in the Midwest
that have turned out to produce a few inches of snow. As one station
(primarily the Weather Channel) starts to hype the coming "huge storm" all
the local stations feel compelled to jump on the bandwagon. They, in
turn, start running live segments of "Doppler Radar" and serious talking
heads showing all of us that it is -- *gasp!* -- actually SNOWING outside!

Imagine! In Iowa! In January!

Then, the inevitable school closings follow, as the head of the school
board is showed wringing his hands on live TV, pining for the "safety of
the kids." This is followed by dire warnings not to travel unless
"absolutely necessary"...

Meanwhile, the storm peters out after a few inches of snow, the kids play
outside all day, the malls are packed, and the adults laugh it off as just
another screwed up weather forecast.

Sorry, but this situation seems to have NOTHING to do with meteorology.
I took weather classes in college, and have been a keen observer of it all
my life. I was able to take one look at the radar and satellite pictures,
and knew immediately that they were blowing sunshine up our butts yet
again.

I think it's all about ratings, and the public is being misled on a grand
scale, at an annual cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost
productivity. Worst of all, NO ONE is taking their warnings seriously
anymore (except the schools, who love the paid time off), so when we
really DO get hit with a blizzard, no one will be prepared.

When I was a kid in Wisconsin, if they had closed school every time we got
3 inches of snow, we'd have had the whole winter off!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Viperdoc wrote:

We had the same doom and gloom reports of people running to the stores to
hoard bread and batteries, since we have up to three inches of snow forecast
here in eastern Wisconsin!

Yeah. Here it's bread, eggs, and milk. I wonder what it is about impending
snowstorms that causes this insane desire to make French Toast?

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

Do they shut down programming, and have a talking head taking calls from the
local area? "We have Joe from Bothell on the line, and he says that there is
a half-inch of snow out there!" "Chris, from Bellingham, is on the line. How
bad is it up there, Chris?" "It's snowing, but it's not sticking." "Now
let's switch live to our Mimi Linguini who is monitoring the freeway. Any
accidents yet, Mimi?" "No, but slush is beginning to collect on the road
surface." On and on ad infinitum. Urp.

Bob Gardner

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:CgZCd.620242$wV.514014@attbi_s54...
Is it just me, or does it seem like weather forecasting has gone off the
deep end?

Once again, we've been deluged with "Winter Storm Warnings" in the Midwest
that have turned out to produce a few inches of snow. As one station
(primarily the Weather Channel) starts to hype the coming "huge storm" all
the local stations feel compelled to jump on the bandwagon. They, in
turn, start running live segments of "Doppler Radar" and serious talking
heads showing all of us that it is -- *gasp!* -- actually SNOWING outside!

Imagine! In Iowa! In January!

Then, the inevitable school closings follow, as the head of the school
board is showed wringing his hands on live TV, pining for the "safety of
the kids." This is followed by dire warnings not to travel unless
"absolutely necessary"...

Meanwhile, the storm peters out after a few inches of snow, the kids play
outside all day, the malls are packed, and the adults laugh it off as just
another screwed up weather forecast.

Sorry, but this situation seems to have NOTHING to do with meteorology.
I took weather classes in college, and have been a keen observer of it all
my life. I was able to take one look at the radar and satellite pictures,
and knew immediately that they were blowing sunshine up our butts yet
again.

I think it's all about ratings, and the public is being misled on a grand
scale, at an annual cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in lost
productivity. Worst of all, NO ONE is taking their warnings seriously
anymore (except the schools, who love the paid time off), so when we
really DO get hit with a blizzard, no one will be prepared.

When I was a kid in Wisconsin, if they had closed school every time we got
3 inches of snow, we'd have had the whole winter off!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

ROFL! Yep! And then they have reporters, "out on the scene" with their
faces pointed into the wind acting like they are in a real blizzard sticking
rulers into the snowbanks that the plows have created multiplying the actual
snowfall by an astronomical number. Every time I see one do that I think to
myself that I'm glad I'm not married to that idiot or their idiot producer.
I wouldn't want to be seen in public after acting that stupid for millions
of viewers.

CNN actually had a story about how one of the northern midwest states, North
Dakota or Minnesota I think, was going to use a radar type device to
"officially" measure snowfall. Sheesh! Does it really matter?! Last I
heard, the snow usually melts in the spring anyway.

Jim



"Bob Gardner" wrote in message
...
Do they shut down programming, and have a talking head taking calls from
the
local area? "We have Joe from Bothell on the line, and he says that there
is
a half-inch of snow out there!" "Chris, from Bellingham, is on the line.
How
bad is it up there, Chris?" "It's snowing, but it's not sticking." "Now
let's switch live to our Mimi Linguini who is monitoring the freeway. Any
accidents yet, Mimi?" "No, but slush is beginning to collect on the road
surface." On and on ad infinitum. Urp.

Bob Gardner

Bob Gardner wrote:
Do they shut down programming, and have a talking head taking calls
from the
local area?

We had a storm that passed through AZ on Mon and Tue that was
generating that kind of hype. "Weather Alert"s every 15 min.
Granted, it was a good sized weather system that brought some much
needed moisture to the region. But, all of the hype was just a bit
over the top. Last night I watched 15 min. of a half-hour newscast
devoted "Storm Coverage". What it really amounted to was the fact that
it rained a few inches in some locations and snowed a few feet on the
tops of the mountains. I think the effect is brought on by what is
called a "slow news day".

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)