Last week's weather forecast said we were in for a winter wallop. This morning the news is that Quebec is in for disruptive snow. How is snow disruptive?
There are headlines of snow disruptions in various places - Italy, Austria, Slovenia, in parts of South Africa. There are snow disruptions forecast now for Britain.
It looks like major winter storms are what makes for "disruption". For Quebec this weekend, it will be a combination of snow, ice, and rain. Not only will Quebec get some, but the UK weather report warns of disruptive snow and temperatures of -10C and Britain is on flood alert. Even Northern Ireland is "braced" for disruptive snow showers. I didn't know that snow "showered" - I thought that would be rain. They are also getting ready for a 200 mile wide arctic blast. In another ominous article: "a mammoth band of snow will first hover over the north of Scotland on Sunday..."
We in Canada can look to Environment Canada for all things weather and the website has this matter-of-fact sort of summary: "Canada has one of the most severe winter climates of any country in the world. We experience a wide variety of dangerous weather conditions including extreme cold, blinding blizzards, and treacherous ice storms. Even conditions more typical of the warmer months such as heavy rain and lightning are possible in winter."
Environment Canada has over 20 different types of alerts for various weather hazards - but none of them are "disruptive snow". Our cross-Canada alert for this week is extreme cold. That sounds unfriendly but not as alarming as disruptive snow.
Here's a snow load in the making. |