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Snow: Friend or Foe?

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  • Snow: Friend or Foe?

    The worst is yet to come but tonight I am already getting the chills, not only by the cold temperature outside but by what is about to be in store for me tomorrow morning where up to 20 centimeters of snow is expected to dump Toronto starting tonight all the way to tomorrow as forecasted by Environment Canada:
    Code:
    Forecast
    
    Issued: 3.30 PM EST Thursday 18 December 2008
    Winter storm warning in effect.
    
    Tonight:
        Increasing cloudiness. Flurries beginning overnight. Wind west 20 km/h becoming light this evening. Low minus 7.
         
    Friday:
        Snow at times heavy and blowing snow. Amount 20 cm. Wind northeast 40 km/h gusting to 60. High minus 4.
         
    Friday night:
        Light snow ending in the evening then cloudy. Wind northeast 30 km/h becoming light near midnight. Low minus 11.
         
    Saturday:
        A mix of sun and cloud with 40 percent chance of flurries. High minus 7.
         
    Sunday:
        Snow. Blowing snow. Windy. Low minus 7. High minus 1.
         
    Monday:
        A mix of sun and cloud with 40 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 13. High minus 7.
    So as mother nature is about to wreak havoc, I'm beginning to ponder why do some people get excited and warp into a jolly frenzy upon hearing that those white pufferies will drop from the sky? No I'm not referring to children wanting to snow-ball-fight or build a snowman. But rather why do some people just love it when such type of weather takes place?

    So I am curious as to whether snow is a friend or foe for you? For me, definately more of a foe than a friend. You may think that it's a cool sight to see this stuff and how beautiful it may look when it blankets your surroundings but once you become the reality part of it and it becomes part of your routine, you'll quickly turn your back on it. Stranded in the house, horrendous visibility while driving, waking up early in the bitter cold just to get it out of the driveway, slippery while walking or behind the wheels, etc these are what you have to suck up with and I certainly have every winter in Toronto. So my word of advice if you like snow, just be careful what you wish for.

    I'm just glad I don't have a flight to catch tomorrow; and with even more forecasted for Sunday and temperatures not expected to rise above freezing in any of the upcoming days of the extended forecast, we are sure to have a "thick" white Christmas. Oh what the heck.......even though I hate them than I love them, it is the holidays so in the next couple of days snow will be my friend as oppose to foe. Afterall the holiday is all about making friends not foe.
    My Past, Present, Future Flights (Flights from March 2007 to Present to Future)

  • #2
    At a ski resort: Friend
    When it shuts down transportation: Foe

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    • #3
      As a Scot that's lived in HK, KL and now SG over the last 14-yrs i have to say i miss it..... a bit. We never really had snow the way you get it in Canada, maybe a couple of weeks of heavy stuff in the winter at our level plus of course the ski centres up in the mountains.

      It was very common for traffic reports in the morning to announce the gates to the mountains were closed.

      We would have those few weeks of snow that made travel to work a little tricky. I remember one morning driving the 14-miles to work to find i was one of only 2-dozen others to turn up, the majority that lived a hell of a lot closer than me, taking the snow as an excuse to just get some time off. The management of the company served us lunch that day and we had a bit of a party in the canteen.....there wasn't enough people in the place to actually start production. I had driven the furthest and was the one used as the example to the rest of staff the next day.....for some reason they went off me for a few weeks after that.

      I couldn't get the car in the car park for snow, and i had to dig it out again before i drove home, but it was all good fun. I had rear wheel drive on the car back then and it was great. Don't think i could handle it for anything longer than a couple of weeks in a year though.

      I at least also had the option of driving into the mountains and going skiing IF i wanted to, but at my choice. It's fine if then you can make a choice about it rather than just living with it.......although, we also have a choice about where we live and at the end of the day if we really don't like it, move.

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      • #4
        Nice to look at, for a little while. Until everything gets damp and annoying.

        And yes when it shuts down transportation - NOT a fan!
        All opinions shared are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer or any other organisation of which I'm affiliated to.

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        • #5
          I have travelled 20 hours to see and ski the stuff.

          Definitely friend ( of the one-night-stand ) type

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          • #6
            talk about global warming ...

            i hate snow.
            Home is where your heart is.

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            • #7
              Many many years ago, I was a junior officer onboard a chemical tanker, which was then calling ports along the St Lawerence river, Canada. It was winter and was snowing heavily... the decks were iced up and thick with a least a foot of snow.....

              I remembered very clearly that we were carrying caustic soda, for discharge to a paper mill factory. Caustic freezes at 5 degrees celcius and so the tanks were heated. The temperature was minus 15 degrees, unfortunately, the deck lines were not heated, and so we had frozen caustic in the pipelines, which we would have to melt with steam hose..... well, snow, ice and cold was definitely foe, holding a steaming hose, pointing the steam discharge at steelpipes, trying to run pumps.... in freezing cold... and work started at 6 am...... that was no fun.....

              Last week, took my first ski lessons in Korea..... well, that was fun and surely a friend....
              .
              .
              This is a computer generated message, no signature required....

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              • #8
                Neither foe nor friend.

                It's the associated experiences (flight delays; slush getting into my shoes and on my coats; exhilarating views of the Alps; the awesome stillness of Park Avenue when a snowstorm shuts Manhattan down in the evening hours) and my objective at that time (getting to work vs. relaxing) that make the snow seem negative or positive.

                Snow is just part of nature. Given that I didn't have much of it growing up in Manila, I tend to like it.




                Caveat: I haven't had to shovel it, or to install snow tires because of it. My friend, who grew up in Buffalo (NY) and who had to do those things as a matter of seasonal routine, isn't as enraptured with snow.


                P.S. How are you surviving your snowstorm, Rejuvenated?
                ‘Lean into the sharp points’

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by cawhite
                  Definitely NOT a friend.
                  Sez a true Midwesterner.

                  Hope you have a relatively trouble-free winter, cawhite. If not (or even if ), I'll buy you dinner the next time you're in LON.
                  ‘Lean into the sharp points’

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                  • #10
                    Fresh snow is beautiful after that it is just a pain. Admittedly I have spent all my life living in places where it snows very rarely so each winter you might have one or two snowfalls but that's it.

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                    • #11
                      Snow : friend when I am indoors feeling cosy but once it becomes ice or when it melts, becoming slushy in the process, a definite foe.

                      Originally posted by scooby5 View Post
                      As a Scot ...
                      Greetings from the Granite City

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                      • #12
                        Human nature. When you have it, you loathe it, when you have none of it, you yearn for more.

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                        • #13
                          I love snow... in small doses

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by SQflyergirl View Post
                            I love snow... in small doses
                            How small?

                            Like ice kachang doses?

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                            • #15
                              Uh... it looks good but that's all snow has on its positive side.

                              On the negative:
                              1) It's cold. And I really prefer warm temperatures!
                              2) If it is cold enough so that ponds etc freeze over the snow stops you from playing icehockey
                              3) It makes everything outside very slippery so you have to watch out or you'll fall
                              4) Drivers will become paranoid as soon as they see the first flakes of snow tumbling down. Have you ever been stuck behind someone who is doing 30 km/h for 10km on a completely de-iced road? I have and it was ANNOYING!!!
                              Capslock is cruise control for cool... not!

                              See you at W:O:A 2010- rain or shine!

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