Thursday, December 11, 2014

Weather Report at SNPC HQ

We are happy to report a real snow at HQ in Bowie MD. It began just before 1pm EST, and it's really coming down, too.

Friday, February 14, 2014

The snow will find a way to kill you


Shovelling Snow Again by D Sharon Pruitt, on Flickr

"Howard County officials said Thursday that three county men died after suffering heart attacks while outside their homes during the snowstorm, and that two were shoveling snow when they collapsed."
Horrible, right? Well, what can we do?
Howard County Executive Ken Ulman urged county residents to be careful.
"This is deep, heavy snow, and I implore everyone to take it easy," he said. "Please don't over-exert yourself. Clear a little at a time. Or ask a neighbor to help. We need to pitch in as a community during times like these. If you know of a neighbor who could use assistance, please offer to do a little shoveling.
That seems like useful advice, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman. It almost makes me forgive you for the parking ticket we received in Ellicott City after all the "Thanks to Ken Ulman, parking meters are not running" signs. So, if neighbors help neighbors, nobody needs to die, right?

BREAKING: Family of Fairfax County man says he collapsed and died while helping a neighbor clear his driveway of snow Thursday.
Sigh. I would suggest you stay inside and give up on shoveling snow, but you know I'd just end up posting an article about someone dying from slipping on an unshoveled sidewalk.

Bowie Snow Tops 1 foot.

Over the last 36 hours, Snowpanic's Bowie outpost has received over a foot of snow. The Weather Channel estimates we've accumulated 13.4 inches Thursday alone.

More snow is expected Friday night.

It's amazing the variety of snowfall accumulations in the area. Check out local Weather Stations at Weather Underground. Simply input your ZIP code and scroll down to "Weather Stations" to find details from an armchair weatherman near you.






Thursday, January 30, 2014

Did we get enough snow to close school? A visual cheat sheet.

This awesome map, first posted on Reddit, shows how much snow it takes to cancel snow in various parts of the country. I am proud to live in the 1"-3" band.

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Georgia Tech EMERGENCY



Georgia Tech Snow Yep, that's a doozy. Georgia Tech Snow

Snow Hits North Carolina

Oh, the horror.

Snow Panic Hits the South

Here's a tweet from an Alabama meteorologist who had to abandon his car after what looks like an inch of snow.

Here is a map of what a similar amount of snow did to the roads in Atlanta, courtesy of the Weather Channel's Tom Niziol.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

For certain senses of the word "awesome"...

In general, I love Google's Auto-Awesome for photos. But there are a few effects that seem a little bit cheesy, like adding falling snow. It's sort of the 21st-century equivalent of stickers you used to be able to buy to paste on your pictures, back when you had to go to the store to have pictures developed.

It confuses my 3-year-olds, though.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Snowpanic in June?



The Washington Post is reporting that many area school systems have exhausted their store of snow days and will be adding days to the end of the year. As a kid, I always thought snow days were not that exciting...it just shifted around the days that you were going to school. Even if you still had snow days "left", it just meant you wouldn't be getting out of school early in the summer. Now, 2-hour delays...that was time you'd never have to give back. Ditto early dismissals.

Enjoy this awesome picture...

...courtesy of Creative Commons.When I stated blogging, I would grab pictures from wherever, because the Internet was young, and I figured nobody would care. Once or twice someone complained, but it was rare. Now, however, I try to be more responsible. One of the great ways to find pictures now is through the Creative Commons Search. You can find some nice pictures (like the one of a DuPont Circle snowball fight I used on an earlier post) that you only need to give credit in order to have permission to use. With Flickr, they provide you an appropriate link on the image page itself. And you can get some quality, recent pictures, like the one above.

Snowpanic...dot...cz

So apparently there's a Czech snowboard shop trading on the Snowpanic name. As long as no lawyers get involved, I will choose to be entertained by this.

Let's be careful out there

My unofficial count has three traffic fatalities already in Maryland. Two in Landover (accident pictured), and one near Emmitsburg. So even though we joke about how people in Maryland can't drive in the snow...people in Maryland really can't drive in the snow. You probably don't want to be on the road with them unless you absolutely have to.

It's On Again!



The Washington Post reports that the traditional DuPont Circle snowball fight is scheduled for 6:30 pm. So grab your scarf and leave your gun at home.