Isn’t it nice to have some relief from the Polar Vortex? Where do the weather folks come up with these terms? Do they secretly long to write scripts for horror movies?
Years ago it was common to refer to the Omega Block. And whose idea was it to compare the frigid temperatures with the weather on Mars?
Hey! We live in Canada and we have a long and frequently nasty winter. It very much defines who we are as Canadians, but the deep freeze reminded us that the definition is not the same in all parts of the country.
Pearson Airport in Toronto is the centre of the Canadian universe when it comes to air travel. On the worst day of the cold snap, Pearson was declared frozen ! .. not closed, but frozen. Hundreds of flights were cancelled both coming and going.
The people who work outdoors at airports in places like Winnipeg, Regina and Edmonton were probably chuckling to themselves as they put on a thicker balaclava and went back out on the tarmac.
What can we say about United Airlines, the big American carrier who cancelled more than half their flights to western Canada during the cold snap? Turns out the revenue they earned for every passenger seat in December was up more than 12%. The reasons for that are complicated, but it seems evident that flying in and out of Canada is a throw in for them.
If the media here were over the top reporting on the cold, it was nothing compared to standups like this lady in the American Midwest.
Audio from reporter: “Things are freezing on my body that I didn’t even know were possible…”
Way too much information there. And like many other things nowadays, perhaps the problem is too many blank pages and too much airtime to fill, and not enough real news.
Enjoy the break. Chances are old man winter is only ‘re-loading’.
I’m Roger Currie
Warmer weather will enable the snow plow operators to finish the job. Photo by M. LeBlanc
