thdave

It's frustrating to watch the local news during snow storms. We have been hit for three days in a row and they feed off of it.

We get "advisories" and "warnings" up the ying yang. They advise people to stay inside and watch their TV show --that's unhealthy and irresponsible. Everyone should get out and get active for a little bit on any day.

Winter storm warning, winter weather advisory, and a wind chill advisory was issued today for NE Ohio. Yet I biked in today (18 deg F and 30 mph winds) and my only issue was overheating.

I was watching the national news yesterday and heard an official from the City of Chicago advise that no one go outside for longer than 5 to 10 minutes.

What an idiot. I suppose if you're going to stand still that's good advise, but if you're sledding or skating or biking, that is ignorant. For generations, winter sports have thrived yet in this day and age we have to put up with these nannies who get in front of a microphone and, out of concern for us, advise that we stay inside.

Any other stories and exgaggerations that you've heard?

monsterpile

I grew up in northern South Dakota which isn't even the coldest tundra, but I suppose its cold. My family used to go out for about 20 nights during the fall to raise money for basically the less ortunate going door to door collecting money. The magic number was when it dipped below -20 then we didn't go out or if the windchill was below -20. Other than that we went out.

It helps some that it was a much drier cold than say Nebraska, but still it seems like people freak out if it gets to 15 degrees. Some people shouldn't go out in the cold because they are ill-prepared, maybe just old or other reasons including just not educated well enough of how to dress or just be in below freezing temperatures. I think you are right this telling people to not even going out in those temps you described is somewhat ridiculous. You would think with people in thsi country being so fat everyone woud have better insulations. =P

tjspiel

People routinely ignore those warnings anyway, especially the ones telling them not to drive.

I always like the ones that say something to the effect of: "In this extreme cold, exposed flesh can freeze in less than a minute."

thdave

I think the mistake being perpetrated is that the advisories are really for motorists, but the media tends to caution everybody.

Then they coddle some reporter, who's standing out in the cold freezin' his buns, and after his report they quickly tell him to get inside quick to get a cup of coffee. Give me a break. How did people possibly survive winter through time--I highly doubt they all went inside to have coffee during the middle ages!

wunderkind

Just because you can, doesn't mean everyone should. Think of the old, lame or maime?, pregnant, health problems etc.

Personally, if the weather is that bad, its a great excuse to not go to work and just play with snow outside my house with my children.

nashcommguy

I lived through the 'Blizzard Of '79" in Chicago. Was out the next day and had a blast in the snow like a kid. The media has all those new weather tracking devices like doppler radar and they have to use it.

wahoonc

Media hype is just that...if I hear the words "black ice" one more time on a morning news cast I may just go off on someone. It isn't black ice, it is just good old glare ice on a black surface. Common sense will tell you that if was raining late yesterday and got well below freezing last night there is going to be ice somewhere, and a bridge is as good a place as any for it to form...

Aaron

mustachiod

so.... no waiting for public transportation, walking to school, work, etc. heck, most people can't walk to their car in less than 10 minutes (FYI, you never get an open spot in front of your house in Chicago)

sorry, i can't come to work because the media told me to stay home and panic. good thing i have my safe room that i built for Y2k and smallpox attacks.

agreed about the winter sports thing.

bhop

It's like that here, but with rain.

Andy_K 

Yeah, you guys who actually experience winter have no idea what overly dramatic local weather coverage can be. We get a couple of inches of snow here about once a year. When it happens, the local TV stations have something like four hours of coverage showing the same three shots of a car sliding or spinning its wheels over and over and over, interspersed with bits of a reporter bundled up like an Eskimo talking about how dangerous the roads are.

wunderkind

Don't worry fellow Americans! FEMA to the rescue!!!

rnorris

And yet there are always great masses who don't get the message and end up driving (or walking, or riding) unprepared and end up stuck, lost, or worse. It always amazes me that with our current ability to predict weather disasters days in advance, and people being better informed than ever, huge numbers of them still end up being caught unprepared. Just had an example of this in Seattle when a well predicted snowstorm blew in recently; it still caused mass chaos.

AdamDZ

That's freaking hysterical Sure, it makes sense... for the TV station, ROFLMAO

thenomad

I love how for some reason people rush the supermarkets and snatch up all the eggs bread and milk.
WTH! What are they going to do with that? Geeze, they never bother to buy that much milk eggs and bread before...
Make French toast? Is that what you need for winter survival?

tjspiel

Jeez, no kidding. In my 46 years of living here I can't once remember being snowed in for more than a day. Yet when I worked in a grocery store as a teen business was just nuts during every snow storm. Couple that with people not being able to get into work and it was chaos. I remember staying later to cover for somebody else once. After 10 hours straight of being on my feet, I sat down for 5 minutes in the break room when some guy comes wandering back there.

"Hey ! You're out of gallons of skim milk !"

So buy 2 half gallons and come back the day after tomorrow. Cripes.

Andy_K 

And the roof of Qwest Field didn't even collapse.

exile

Sometimes you just have to laugh and go about your daily life. I lived in Ithaca NY for a few years and don't ever remember having a snow day. Yet you turn on the news and it seems some places not used to it where going to shut down because they got a few inches.

What would tjspiel, irclean, or sixtyfiver do...? Oh yeah, just ride. I guess it's all relative.

wahoonc

It is required by local ordinance in the Deep South...

Funny thing is the grocery store nearest me runs out of beer and chips first, then milk and bread. Must be all the young military guys that live nearby.

The best one I recall was when we were threatened by a hurricane. I stopped by the store to grab just a few staple items to bring my stocks back to normal levels, people are grabbing milk, steaks and frozen foods. I am thinking WTF? I want canned goods and dry foods, because in a hurricane the first thing to go is usually the power and of course it was, some of the area was without power for over a week.

Aaron

PaulRivers

You know, I ignored them like that, but did you try driving several Saturdays ago when the temp was 28 degrees but it was raining? I tried driving despite the "don't drive!" news forecasts, but....I have to say, those forecasts were really kinda right. The roads were ice skating rinks. There were so many accidents I spent half my time just sitting in my car waiting for traffic to clear. It took me 2.5 hours to do a normally 20-30 minute drive, and I got there at 2:30am, just as the thing I was going to ended. For once, I should have listened to the news...

PaulRivers

The media is very sensationalistic, regardless of whether it's weather, news, war, etc.

It wasn't snow, but this summer there was a thunderstorm and a tornado warning. The local news station was really very, very serious about it -
1. Get to your basement!
2. Stay there until the storm is completely over!
3. Don't even just sit there - GET UNDER A TABLE OR STURDY OBJECT! PUT A BLANKET OVER THE TABLE TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FLYING GLASS! DO IT RIGHT NOW!!

This is no exaggeration - after the weather person said all this in a semi-hysterical tone, the news program then cut to their report - who was broadcasting live, standing outside IN the very storm they were warning people about...

Unbelievable.

2manybikes

Don't some live near ski areas? More snow then becomes a good thing. People ski in all conditions all the time. But they think I'm nuts to ride in the snow?

Santaria

The problem is you're assuming that everybody applies common sense to what they do.

There are a significant number of reasons to warn people, the most important one appears because they simply can.

We've learned to predict weather better, and that advanced warning ability has offered people the ability to get prepared in whatever way is necessary.

I lived in Minnesota in '96 and had my car stranded in a ditch about 3 miles from my home. This was in the middle of one of the heavier blizzards that year and that night they indicated it was the coldest on record in the state. I walked home that night without a problem. Wanna know why? Because I was a part-time snow maker who had the proper equipment to work in -40 degree temperatures for upwards of 8 hours a time without problems. If I recall though, 3 people died that night within a few hours drive of me. All of them died in their cars that became stuck in drifts and they were not prepared.

PaulRivers

Actually, that's my favorite comeback. Someone says "You bike in the winter??". And I say "Do you ski in the winter?". They usually pause...if they don't, I add on "Do you ski outside? In the cold?". :-)

That actually usually does the trick - a light bulb goes off in their head and they're like "Oh, yeah. Of course."

2manybikes

You must not know the people around here. !

banerjek

I definitely fall into that category as hysteria and overreaction have been the norm for some time. The problem with all these idiotic warnings is they encourage you not to take real situations seriously.

Haven't gotten burned on that yet, but there have been a few iffy situations. Once I stayed in a building that actually was on fire (how the eff was I supposed to know since they had so many alarms for such piddly things). Another situation I did not treat with adequate respect was my first snowstorm in the mountains.