cheer up, buffalo. it will all melt in next week’s 60-degree temps.
Next weeks story: “12 Buffalo residents drown in flooding”
“8 people have died”…
Gah!! Numbers without context are meaningless! 400+ people die in New York State every day (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/state-and-territorial-data.htm). In this end, 8 people over a few days is not meaningful in the context of a public health discussion, especially when the snow was only secondarily involved in several of the deaths (e.g. the man who died of a heart attack while snowblowing has more to do with mortality due to heart disease than snowstorm.)
Really, any discussion about how many people have died should give relative figures, because now people are scared about snowstorms (which they can’t control) when they should be actively lowering their risk of the major diseases (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc) many of which are entirely within their control!
Do not taunt a happy snow cloud!
I’m curious how well snow insulates. Is there a “sweet spot” for how much snow on your roof is beneficial.
As a QLDer (It’s the Florida of Australia!) , I’m gonna go for “none”. 
Edit: There’s a neat chart that compares the insulation values of various materials here.
Of course, the internet has answers for you
Wait, where’s the Shiba Inu? I thought there would be Shibas in the snow.
The Florida of Australia on multiple levels.
I lived in Western NY for seven years during college and grad school. The cities up there are used to getting heavy snow but anything more than 2-3 feet at once and ends up being bad news even for them. Roof collapses are very real threats, especially if it starts to rain and all that snow fills up like a sponge.
People die shoveling snow all the time; it is hard work even if you are in shape for it. For that reason I appreciate your point – but people attribute fatalities to weather all the time, whether that is snow or flooding or just a heat wave. It may be imprecise, but it is a well established way of talking about storms. Would these people be alive if the storm hadn’t happened? probably. If you live in a place that snows, you’ll probably see newscasters and weather reporters warning repeatedly about the dangers of travelling and especially shoveling, so I do think the proper public messages are being sent.
Personally, I’d be most concerned about the inability of emergency services to respond; I’m surprised that hasn’t added to the number.
I lived in Central New York during college; we were south of the snow belt, and Buffalo just got more snow this week than we got in a typical winter. And I left there and went to grad school in California instead of Michigan for reasons.
(Ithaca was just as cold, but it’s far enough from the lakes that it doesn’t get as much snow. On the other hand, the Army moved its Arctic warfare training school from Alaska to Watertown, in NY’s northern tier, because the weather in Watertown was worse.)
So glad Cuomo got out there to witness the cars stuck in snow. So very helpful and comforting to the folks stuck in their cars.
If he stayed in a heated office, would you be criticizing him too? What could a governor do in case of angry (or trying-to-be-funny) weather to not get criticized?
No, but thanks for asking. The governor going out to a highway where cars are stuck in snow is a waste of time and energy–it’s a PR move plain and simple. I’d like to see him in his office doing what he’s there to do–manage the government so that these things don’t happen, or when they do, to easily mitigate the problems that exist. Instead, he’s going to take (at least) two or more large SUVs, likely with a police escort, to do what? Is he really going to help clear the snow from the roadway, or provide first aid to people with frostbite, or serve hot food to people who are stranded? Hell no. And even if he did, it’s a token effort done for as long as it takes to get a good photograph. He’s a manager, so he should be managing and improving the system exactly so such failures or issues can be prevented in the future.
Seeing the situation first-hand is much better than just reading reports or watching photos/videos. The magnitude of the problem is easier to comprehend when you are there.
That, plus there’s some chance of the first-responders to talk with the big cheese directly without having to go through the usual hoops.
Not tacking some PR onto it when he’s already there would be an ineffective use of resources, too.
I could understand the importance of a first-hand view if the area in question wasn’t already known for this particular weather or environmental effect. If this happened in DC or Atlanta then it would make sense that the Governor would want to see what’s going on because that sort of activity is outlandish for the geographical area involved and her expertise could be utilized to mitigate or at least diminish the negative outcomes.
Buffalo’s local leaders most certainly have a deep bench in terms of cold weather and snow removal, so the addition of Cuomo doesn’t strike me as anything other than posturing. The PR value wouldn’t be as high, of course, of a photograph showing Cuomo speaking to those local leaders via teleconference, but at the very least he’d be seen as the overseer in charge, delegating authority where necessary to handle the problem. And if those local leaders aren’t doing what needs doing, then that oversight is literally executed to remove or correct the problem child and the work goes on.
I’ve had the misfortune to be an underling on PR-central dog and pony shows with the military and the Red Cross, and every time it happened the whole thing stunk of being nothing more than an ego-boost to the little king being carried through the wasteland to wave and smile for the cameras.
As a politician he’s searching the snow for some kind of anus, so he could blow hot smoke up it’s ass.
I live in NSW now but grew up in QLD. In three weeks I’m going to visit my parents for Christmas and whatnot, while 6 months pregnant. The heat is going to kill me. Wish it would snow more here.
