Comments | kimisutra: Humpty Hump Day

kimisutra

Humpty Hump Day

Jan 29, 2014 09:26

Happy Wednesday! Happy back to school after the 2nd polar vortex school closing day. Does anyone in Chicagoland remember 0 degree days with 40 below wind chill effect and regularly scheduled programming continuing as usual ( Read more... )

Comments 7

fizzyland January 29 2014, 17:59:16 UTC

Those of us who want to write more than blurbs about new pairs of jeans or wine reviews, stay on LJ, but yes, storytelling is a fading art.

moondrunk January 29 2014, 18:27:59 UTC

The polar vortex has been weird. I live in the Chicago burbs and I don't remember windchills this bad before, maybe I'm blocking them out though!

marjun January 29 2014, 18:57:38 UTC

My son is at college in Birmingham, and I live in Huntsville. Usually when there is a threat of ice, everything shuts down a day in advance, much to the amusement of places that regularly get ice. I'm not sure what happened this time. It was well-known that snow and ice were on the way for points east and south of Huntsville.

saomigray January 29 2014, 20:39:05 UTC

I live in Birmingham, and I'm also confused about a few things.

I'm not sure why people either went to work at all or waited until after things had already gotten bad before trying to head home. And all the people who had to abandon cars and walk home...? Why would anyone try to drive even after it had become clear that this was an actual weather event and not the usual needless panic?

marjun January 29 2014, 20:49:18 UTC

Because the businesses told them they had to come to work. That happened to me once in 2008. We had ice on the road in the morning, but work didn't close, because the boss's side of town was clear. My side, however, was still locked up. I tried to come in, but ended up pulling off and walking home. If work says you have to come in, you come in.

saomigray January 29 2014, 20:48:11 UTC

The last time something like this happened in Alabama was in 1993. If we ever get snow at all, it usually melts off after a few hours of sunlight. There's no preparation for severe weather since this kind of thing happens a few times a century, at most. When it comes down to spending money on equipment that will not be used before it rusts out or putting the money toward other things, the money goes elsewhere.

Since so many of Alabamans have never dealt with serious winter weather and have no idea what to expect, you have a bunch of yahoos out on roads when they shouldn't be and making a big ole mess of everything.

For some reason, the local weather was reporting ahead of time that the Birmingham area would have "a light dusting of snow" and places south of us would get 1 - 2 inches. I'm not sure why people didn't get the hint when it became clear to sane people that this was a real thing and just stay where they were.

nevarra January 31 2014, 17:12:03 UTC

I remember it being cold as a kid and walking (freezing) to and from school in it. But I don't ever remember windchills this bad. (Like Moondrunk says). I remember living in DeKalb in college and the wind chills were -25 and they didn't cancel classes. I skipped a lot of classes those days because by the time the bus got to my dorm it was packed and just drove on by. They could kiss my cold booty if they expected me to walk to campus on THOSE days! hahaha. :) My neighbor and friend is the school nurse's aide and she said that below a certain temperature, they have a really hard time keeping the buses running and with heat. So maybe that's a big part of it too ( ... )