DID YOU KNOW... A BLIZZARD Isn't Called A Blizzard Until It Has Met The 4-4-4 Rule?

“Holy smokes! It’s a blizzard out there!” And most times our meanings are sincere, but our misuse of the word ‘blizzard’ are probably more often than not. Here in Canada, in order for a blizzard to be truly called a blizzard, certain criteria must be met:

Winds must be sustained at 40 km/h or more for at least 4 hours combining with falling or blowing snow to cause visibilities to be reduced to 400 m or less. Hence the 4-4-4 rule. However, there is an exception: areas north of the treeline line in Canada have to have the same conditions but it must last at least six hours to be deemed a blizzard.

Source: theweathernetwork

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Our definition of a blizzard differs from that of our neighbours to the South.
In the U.S., to be a blizzard, a snow storm must have sustained winds or frequent gusts that are greater than or equal to 56 km/h (35 mph) with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 m or 0.25 mile or less and must last for a prolonged period of time—typically three hours or more.

Source

The deadliest blizzard in recorded history?

It was the 1972 Iran Blizzard, which caused approximately 4,000 deaths. It dropped as much as 26 feet (7.9 m) of snow – that’s like a two and half story building worth of snowfall, and completely covered 200 villages. After a snowfall lasting nearly a week, an area the size of Wisconsin was entirely buried in snow.

According to Associated Press reports, some rescue workers who’d been dropped on a snow drift burying a village called Sheklab dug for two days straight, burrowing through 8 feet of snow, only to find 18 frozen bodies and no one—not one single person in a population of 100—still alive.

The second deadliest blizzard on record tore through Afghanistan in 2008, bringing -30 degree temperatures and killing an estimated 926 people.





Source(s): theweathernetwork | wikipedia | weirdfm

WIRT: GREASE is the Word - Your Toilet is NOT a Trash Can...

What I Read Today in a local newspaper, was not a news article or story but rather a PSA ad about dumping grease in toilets. I’m sure many of you are guilty of this - I am. With me it’s not in the toilet, but rather down the drain.

I actually feel quite guilty as I write this post and honestly didn’t think  I was doing any harm.

I like to make my own french fries which involves peeling a lot of potatoes and a great deal of deep frying. After awhile, when the oil is no longer needed, I would dump it, while it was still hot, down the drain. I figured it was still warm.  But now that I think about it, it wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

I no longer dump grease down the drain and now I’m asking you to do the same.

Did You Know…

DID YOU KNOW?... There Are Canadian Two-dollar Bills Worth 20 Grand?

** Update**

Rare $2 bill may NOT be worth $20,000

Well, this is awkward.

Last night we told you about a rare $2 bill that was expected to sell for $20,000 at an auction. But we now offer a mea culpa. We were mistaken.

The first problem? The story was from 2012 – a speculative piece about a bill potentially worth $20,000 because the wrong officials signed it. The second issue? A noteworthy serial number. The 1986 bills with the serial numbers prefixes AUG, AUH and AUJ should have contained the signatures of Bank of Canada governor Gerald Bouey and deputy governor John Crow, but a few of them are signed by deputy governor Gordon Thiessen instead. We only told you about AUH.

Finally, we speculated the bill could be worth $20,000. As it happens, the bill did actually sell at auction – but for only $10,000.

YAY! WE WON! WE CAN ALL GO BACK TO BED NOW - NOT! PLUS SOME OLYMPICS FACTS

Yay! We Won!

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics CANADA
Photo: Michael Francis McCarthy

Yes, it’s finally over, and after getting up in the ungodly hours of 7am on a Sunday morning, (uhm, not me, just the rest of Canada), to watch the game, the partying has just begun and the memories… well, they’ll be going on forever. And from a non-hockey sports fan point of view, this was another great moment in time when waking up to hear “We won the game 3-0”, made me all giddy and wanting to rewind, relive and research the moment over and over again.

All teams gave it their best, I even thought the Americans played great, (from the bits I’ve managed to watch here and there), but who the hell am I and what the hell do I know about hockey? In the end, somebody had to win and that happened to be CANADA – YAY!! Now hockey will be even more embedded into Canada’s identity as a nation.

When it’s all said and done, Canada won not because of pure luck or good timing but because of an amazing show of solid team work with, (as one site puts it), a ferocious commitment to defense and discipline.

Here are some firsts for Canada, then and now: