End of time flakey

[auth. Dec 18. 2008]

"Snowmagedon" is upon us. Two low pressure areas combined over Colorado and will hit the Toronto city about rush hour.

The storm warnings issued by Environment Canada was upgraded to a Warning, and a Watch. Or is it the other way around. The alerts have been up since yesterday. The nickname for the weather alerts got picked by the weathermen at 680 News in Toronto. So this one is a Snowmagedon I.

Whether (weather) or not the storm hits like they say is totally speculation. In my recall, an experienced weather observer, in this area Colorado Hookers are busts. That term was adopted by the weather people at Environment Canada to express the power and motion of weather patterns. One is the Alberta Express, or Alberta Clipper. Another is Chinook.

Colorado Hookers are storms that form or enhance near the state of Colorado, then move east then is captured by the permanent winter low pressure area over Hudson's Bay which means the storms turn rapidly to the left to a north easterly path. The pattern hooks up.

The entire Great Lakes zone is subject to this normal storm movement. It was a Colorado Hooker that was the deepest low pressure area ever recorded over the land mass of North America. Even Katrina did not register such a deep low pressure measurement. Even though it had the windspeed of a hurricane it did not have the power. The difference is in the humidity which generates the power of a hurricane.

Regardless, tomorrow's storm is anticipated. In theory, it is striking at the wrong time which is rush hour, on a work day. It means a lot of traffic will be on the road. Environment Canada somewhat created this little dilemma. The last set of storm warnings was a complete bust, a real flop. Of course, what is logged here, is that the storm after a mistake, usually means that the people will ignore the warning.

For the conspiracy buffs, you will note that this warning comes on the Friday, of the last shopping weekend before Christmas. Now the storm is a rare chance to assist the staggering economy in the retail sector. One smells a plot.

If the storm track is to the south, it won't be too bad. If the storm track is to the north of Toronto it will deserve the weatherman's promise. If the storm tracks directly over Toronto, a bust.

I hope its bad. Gives a whole set of stories to put into blogs like this one. e.g. This is the worst storm in 37 years.