They’re not calling it a polar vortex this time, but man, it is so cold this week that I took a nap with my hat on. At least I don’t live in Erie!
A holiday storm has blanketed the lakefront city of Erie, Pa., in more than five feet of snow this week, burying streets and driveways in mountains of powder and ice, forcing residents to abandon their incapacitated cars and shattering several snowfall records.
The National Weather Service said the storm had dumped about 60.5 inches of snow on the area from about 7 p.m. Sunday, when it began, to about 8 p.m. on Tuesday. About 63 inches has fallen since Saturday, the weather service said — and more is on the way.
Tom Niziol, a winter weather expert at The Weather Channel, said the tally could approach 70 inches by Wednesday night before the storm tapers off. The snow is part of what he called a “lake-effect snowstorm.” Such storms occur when very cold air comes over the relatively warm waters of the Great Lakes, he said. Heat and moisture then rise into the cold air to produce snow; the direction of the wind determines where the snow falls.
In this case, he said, the narrow snow band parked itself over Erie, Pa. — about 100 miles northeast of Cleveland.
“It’s like sticking one end of a giant fire hose into Lake Erie and pointing the other end at Erie, Pa. — and leaving it there for 30 hours,” Mr. Niziol said.
Colder and wetter in the winter and hotter and drier in the summer.
It’s the new normal with thousand year floods and 500 year droughts occurring every year.
While Big oil, gas and coal make billions of dollars in profit year after year as they continue to poison the planet and us.
And let’s not forget about the tax subsidies that Congress gives them to help kill us off.