Summary
A historic winter storm swept through southern U.S. cities, bringing record-breaking snowfall and widespread disruptions.
Memphis, Tennessee, experienced 7.5 inches (19 cm) of snow, the city’s largest single-day snowfall in 40 years. Atlanta, Georgia, recorded 2.1 inches (5.3 cm), the most in seven years. Other areas were hit even harder, with Arkansas receiving up to 14 inches (35.6 cm), Oklahoma up to 12 inches (30.5 cm), Texas up to 10 inches (25.4 cm), and northern Alabama around 5 inches (12.7 cm).
The storm caused significant travel chaos, with over 300 flight cancellations in Georgia and icy road warnings issued in Tennessee, Texas, and other states.
As the storm moves northward, sub-zero wind chills are expected to grip parts of the U.S. next week.
So mUcH fOr GlObAl WaRmInG.
That’s a big reason why Global Warming is not a good name. Climate change or climate disruption is much better at conveying that the climate is changing in an abnormal way, instead of just warming up.
The planet is warming though, so the term is not without merit. We have headlines every day about 1.5C of warming. The problem has always been that the earth’s systems are too complicated for regular folks and they don’t understand that a more energetic system can produce all sorts of anomalies in any given location. There’s no magical term that will resonate with denialists anyway so why bother trying?
It’s one less argument for them to use. Just think of all these morons conflating weather and climate, and denying climate change because “snow in my garden”.
Words and language have a massive power over people’s minds, might as well use them in a way to reduce confusion.I almost feel like it should be called “planet sloshing” as an analogy to what happens when you add (mechanical) energy to a cup of water: the surface goes from calm to wavy, with higher highs and lower lows.
“They used to call it global warming…”
Yeah it was hot as fuck until december totally normal
I used to live in the south. Even in an area heavily populated by northerners, folks DID NOT know how to drive in the slightest bit of snow. I just left home early and laughed.
I also found it amusing when I first heard “snowflake” used as an insult, and have chucked internally each time since. In the south, snowflakes are hated, but more than that, they’re feared, and bringers of “chaos” if you refuse to learn how to interact harmoniously with them. Using “snowflake” as an insult says much more about the speaker than it does about you. I am proud to be a snowflake!
A lot of the problem here isn’t snow, or people not knowing how to drive in it. It’s that when it does snow, the temperature tends to barely be freezing. Then the snow starts to melt the next day only for all of the melt to become ice that night.
This is why we need an Earth week not just a day. Also, I live in Minnesota and it is the same here every year without fail the first snow just highlights how quickly people forget how to drive in snow.
I’m guessing virtually no one has a set of snow tires down south, which make a huge difference in drivability. They’re essentially mandatory up north.
I grew up in Illinois where we regularly had heavy snowfall, sometimes more than a foot. One year, we had an especially heavy fall, almost three feet, and the local university closed for a single day so they could shovel the paths. Otherwise, the city operated as it normally would.
I moved to Fort Worth, Texas for a job in my early twenties and my first year there they had an unusual snowfall. About two inches and it stuck around for a week and the entire time the whole city was in crisis. Things were cancelled/postponed, business were closed, etc. I got the whole week off of work due to the storm and went out to get food/groceries or visit friends a few times and was pretty amused by all the roads that were absolutely littered with bumpers, mirrors and shrapnel from countless wrecks.
On fire, AND buried in snow. Nice
Burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp.
Republicans will cut funding because it’s the States fault, right?
Hear me out: What if we take the fires in LA and put them in the South?
Get a sharpie and draw them over there.
But snow isn’t warm!
is it journalistic malpractice to not so much as mention climate change in an article about this topic?
It’s not good, but I can see why. If they did they’d be flooded with denialist comments, and I understand not wanting that. I don’t agree though, should absolutely be mentioned no matter the denialist idiots.
People won’t like facts so let’s not publish facts?
Sorry, but fuck that. Facts, always.
Atlanta, Georgia, recorded 2.1 inches (5.3 cm), the most in seven years.
My house in Atlanta got closer to 3-4". To my recollection, at least, it’s the most snow since the “blizzard of 1993.”
The high today is supposed to be 40 °F, but there’s still enough ice left that I think there’s a decent chance schools will be closed again tomorrow.
