Thursday, December 9, 2010

Technology and Weather

It's amazing to me how much technology has advanced when it pertains to forecasting! Many complain that they weren't given enough warning when a natural disaster hits and still more complain when "warnings" and "watches" are issued and the storm never comes.

Growing up we heard terms like "Doppler Radar" and "Stormtracker 2000" but now you can sit in the comfort of your own home or even access satellite images from your smart phone!

In our little corner of the earth, and it was almost like a bubble, we had an enormous amount of snow fall for a constant three days with virtually no break in the flurries. The kids had three snow days in a row, which is unheard of, people were stranded and sent home, public transit shut down for a full day and retail shops were busy if people could walk to them. Many became creative with trying to keep the families busy. For the lucky ones that embrace the season, it was just plain fun!

It was fascinating to observe people posting photos and videos of just how much snow had fallen, and how the storm had affected different areas of the city on Facebook and Twitter. I took a few too!


All in all it was a great experience, and experiment, of how we deal with winter storms here in Canada and how our forms of communication have changed and grown.

As for the forecasters? In a rare turn of events, they were dead on!

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