Snowy Britain

The caption on the BBC website says: The winter whiteout conditions affecting the UK are clearly visible in this striking image received by the University of Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. It shows almost all of the country covered in a white blanket of snow and ice. Photo by NEODAAS/University of Dundee.

UPDATED - "Truly an Amazing Storm!": Vermont's Biggest Ever!

UPDATED: Actually, Vermont's biggest snow fall occurred in 1947: over 50 inches in one storm. But this was definitely Burlington's biggest snow fall from 7 a.m. Saturday, January 2nd to 7 p.m. January 3rd.

Read all about it in the Burlington Free Press: Biggest Vermont snowstorm ever!

Matt Sutkoski in the BFP Weather Rapport blog:

UPDATE: 2 p.m. Sunday: This storm has now become easily the largest snowstorm ever witnessed in Burlington in more than 120 years of record keeping. National Weather Service warning coordinating meteorologist Scott Whittier in South Burlington said the storm dumped 31.8 inches of snow.
And it's not over yet, folks. He said snowfall has intensified in the Champlain Valley, so we have at least several hours of snow yet to come, along with several inches of snow on top of the record.
Truely an amazing storm.

Sneeuw in Amsterdam/Snow in Amsterdam

While our Northeast has been hit with a snow storm (mercifully for now, sparing Burlington), the Netherlands and the rest of Europe (Dutch) has been crippled by severe wintry weather. Especially transportation routes (train, highways, etc.). Amsterdammers seem to be taking it in stride as broadcast in this NOS video (A friend in Amsterdam sent me this link.):

TWO STORMS

nrc.nl international editorial: Perfect storm in the Dutch economy.

While the common folk grapple with the economic problems, a vacationing Dutch royal family is stuck in Lech am Arlberg, Austria. Due to heavy snowfall Lech has become unreachable since the town has been hit by a severe winter storm. I don't think the royal vacationers need to worry about lack of food, beverage or a nice hot sauna.


They remain en famille at their chalet/hotel, untouched by the "perfect" storm at home.





© Dutch Photo Press, Patrick van Katwijk

NOW WE KNOW THINGS ARE BAD

I saw two letters in today's (UK) Guardian. The first read,

I have primulas and chives flowering alongside roses, nicotiana and summer stocks, not to mention that the tomatoes are still going strong (Letters, passim). I'm planting a banana next spring.

And the second,

I was idly casting an eye over an estate agent's offerings this week when a smart young man emerged from the office to politely inquire if there was anything that took my interest. Now we know things are bad.

ESSAY: HOUSTON AFTER DARK

HOUSTON CHRONICLE (14 SEPTEMBER 2008):

Essay: Houston after dark

How to fathom that 5 million people are without power? The best way is to see it for yourself, to see a normally luminescent city - a bonanza of lights and billboards and ever-beckoning commerce - engulfed in almost total darkness.

Out on the highways and thoroughfares, in the middle of the night, you can drive for miles without seeing anyone, or any light other than that coming from your car.

They become so scarce as to greet you like a friendly smile.

Gaudy car dealerships. Gas stations with no gas. Flashing logos at tacky bars and restaurants. Even still-burning cigarette butts. These are your friends while you drive in pitch black Houston.

Cruising through a neighborhood with no lights can conjure an eerie feeling. You know people are there, tossing in bed as they sweat, cursing the hurricane for all their discomforts, but when you cannot see them or any sign they exist, you feel like the only person in the world.

Drive deeper into the darkness and you see the detritus of old trees in the street, cars parked in the driveways of big Texas houses, discarded plywood or generator boxes, but you don't see any people. And you don't see any light.

So you head back to the big streets, back to see your friends, the lights, and wonder at the randomness of where light remains. On the east side of the North Freeway, Greenspoint Mall is but a silhouette, but the other side of the median is as bright as a summer's day, where a host of businesses look as though they could open any moment. Carmax is bright enough to resemble a sports stadium, but a neighboring dealership has not only no lights but no cars, either.

As you drive around the two loops, all you see are bright, flashing sirens, which mean something too, as they are bringing scarce light to dark places and maybe darker happenings.

Then, as you wind around a bend, heading back downtown on U.S. 59, you see it, the only place that never darkened during the storm: the Houston skyline.

Light, alas, is everywhere.

--Bradley Olson

IKE MAKES ITS PRESENCE KNOWN

Waves crashing into the Seawall reach over the memorial to the hurricane of 1900 as Hurricane Ike slams Galveston.

Photo: Johnny Hanson/Houston Chronicle.

Brennan's restaurant burns [I've dined there, my favourite restaurant in Houston, a landmark dining experience!]

Brennan's opened in downtown Houston more than 40 years ago and constantly rated as one of the best eateries in the city.

It's a favorite spot for Sunday brunch and family celebrations.

It was only one of several fires across the city of Houston late Friday and early Saturday morning. But as hurricane force winds approached Houston, the fire department ordered a handful of fire stations to not go out and battle any blazes until the storm threat subsided.

HOLLAND AVOIDS FLOODS....THIS TIME

Just picture masking tape covering the windows at Huis ter Duin!

Dutch and English folks living adjacent to the North Sea held their breath for a few hours this week, but the storm surge brought the highest water levels since the disastrous floods of 1953.

In the Netherlands, Rotterdam Port halted all ship traffic until Friday evening. The Maeslant Barrier protecting Europe's largest port was closed Thursday for the first time under storm conditions since its construction in 1997.

The magnificent photo above shows waves pounding against the lighthouse in IJmuiden, the Netherlands on Thursday, just a 20 minute drive west of Amsterdam. (Marco de Swart/Reuters)

The Valentine's Day Storm - The Day After

Burlington Free Press 02/15/07 Vermont digs out while....

Burton Snowboards in Burlington gave employees the day off to go riding.

“Nothing makes me happier than giving the people who work here the opportunity to experience the essence of a sport that they are making accessible and fun for so many others,” said company founder Jake Burton.

Sells snowboards, doesn't it? Self-serving consumerism promotion, innit. Typical of the Free Press to give free advertising in a story about a snow storm. Who supervises the news copy at that paper?