Canadian Chat → Re: [Weather] Special weather statements ON, NB, NS, NL

It looks like Boston is currently forecast to get 107cm during this storm. Now THAT is a major snowstorm Especially because Boston is even less equipped for major snowfall than Toronto. They get about 10 inches less a year.

Maybe they'll call in the national guard?

Oh wait...

No..Boston gets almost as much as Toronto...115 cm vs 133 cm for Toronto.

However, having a yearly total fall in a few hours would cripple any city...even Montreal.

Boston gets 109cm a year. Toronto gets 133cm a year. 133-109 = 24cm, which is roughly 10 inches.

In which case, I read your thread wrong...thought you said they get less than 10" a year. We will agree though, that the different is 9"...you say 10", I say 8"...so 9" it is.

Still, they're saying 30" (well, 2 1/2 feet they say), so that's enough to make anyones day crap. And if you're on the road at all tonight, you get a free trip to the jail...CNN is showing Boston right now and it looks absolutely nasty...and it's getting a whole lot worse. That type of snow I think would destroy Montreal too...

Sure. It would cause major issues in Montreal, the 45cm snow storm did too. Moving around effectively during such storms has as much to do with being smart about it as it does with the city being equipped to handle it. Montreal would be better able to deal with an 80cm single-day snowfall than most, but it would still cripple transport, and it would still take weeks to clear.

It depends on where you live, but my experience would be that moving on foot is slowed but possible (dress appropriately and you're fine), the metro will be completely unaffected, although much more crowded than usual, and commuter trains will suffer many large delays but still reliably get you there, unlike a bus or car (which might get stuck).

Really, the solution to moving in most cities during a snow storm would seem to be as simple as "stay off the roads, dummy"

Montreal's Metro is entirely underground, right? I know there is a good chunk of the TTC above ground. Not sure how they deal with that.

Yeah, it's entirely underground (the reason is actually not what most people suspect, it's because the hardware isn't waterproof, the trains/rails/track/etc couldn't handle rain or snow, and the concrete rails would probably now react well to the summer/winter temperature shifts, they'd probably crack), it's electric, and they have backup power sources if the hydro goes out (they kept running during the ice storm in 1998, even). So it's pretty much completely immune to the weather on the surface. The only major issue is the crowds, but they can predict higher load from something like a snow storm and increase service as required to compensate. It'll still get super crowded, but you'll get where you need to be without much delay.

I'm not saying above-ground rail is immune to weather... that was very obvious when I got stuck at a train station in Tokyo that didn't have any connecting tracks, and all the trains shut down because of strong wind during a storm. And this is a country where the trains are NEVER EVER EVER even the slightest bit late. But they certainly are less impacted by snow than cars and buses!

Blue Bus-Trains!

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· y6xDQ4LY