Het weer hier bepaalt op het moment alles. De gesprekken, het werk, de school en je privé- leven. Vanochtend nog flink staan ploeteren op de oprit en de stoep. In de volle zon en dik aangekleed. Het klinkt misschien als een tegenstelling maar dat is het niet. Op de wintersport doe je hetzelfde. Van het weekend toen het begon te sneeuwen waren er nog buurmannen die mij hun snowblower leenden. Deze zag ik vandaag niet dus vandaar die work-out in de zon. De vuilnisman kwam nog wel voorbij. Gelukkig maar.
Diep inademen lukte niet helemaal want dan doen de longen te pijn. Neusharen bevriezen al bij –20 en meer dus daar waren we al aan gewend. Het verhaal gaat dat bij –40 (gevoelstemperatuur) de scholen dicht gaan. De kinderen hopen daarop. Wij niet, ze hebben al zo veel vrij. Buitenspelen is er niet bij voor hun en dat is wel een gemis. Op het werk ligt bij Dick het project stil, in het veld, want werken bij deze temperaturen is natuurlijk niet toegestaan.
Het volgende artikel stond vanochtend in de krant. Dus niet alleen Nederlanders klagen over het weer…
| EDMONTON — As temperatures rose then plunged again, Edmonton residents jammed phone lines at local travel agencies and city staff worked to revamp the snow-removal system to deal with a fluctuating climate. Thermometers registered as high as –4 C on Saturday, then hit a low of –28 C Monday. It was expected to dip below –30 C again Monday night and stay cold all week. Both January and February had average temperatures close to historic averages this year, but talk to seniors struggling with ice or pedestrians huddled in doorways waiting for the traffic light to change and their sentiments don’t reflect that. Both months were marked by extreme highs and lows, which gives people false hope for springtime and plays havoc with the city’s plowing schedule. “It’s been the worst winter I’ve been in, and I’m almost 80 years old,” said Nadine Hooper, hiding from the wind inside the Seniors’ Association of Greater Edmonton on Monday. “I just want the snow to be gone,” said her granddaughter, Denise Osmond. “It seems like the wind has been blowing for a long time. It hasn’t been a normal February with the wind,” said Dennis Laliberte with Newwest Travel. He glanced at his phone. Six of his eight lines were busy. Warm weather gives people false hope that spring is near. Then a cold snap is good for business, especially on a Monday when people have had a chance to complain their way through a weekend. “They want to get out of here,” said Laliberte. “They’re tired of it. People just want to go.” When the temperature is constantly cold, city crews have lots of time to get the snow off residential streets before slush builds up in the spring, says transportation operations manager Brice Stephenson. “But that’s the thing we are noticing is starting to change in the last few years,” he said. “We’ve had more and more of these real swings in temperatures. That’s where we got ourselves into trouble.” City crews were back on the main roads plowing 24 hours a day after the weekend snowstorm. According to policy, they won’t plow residential roads again unless the packed snow is deeper than five centimetres. But that could change as the climate changes and there are more temperature swings, he said. The question is, how much time do crews have to clear the snow before it warms up? “Is it good enough to plan for (an average snowfall and temperature) or do you have to anticipate some of these swings in climate that we are starting to get? What’s the risk of getting caught?” His department is preparing a report on the options for city council. The report should be online this week, he said, and is scheduled for debate March 8. But it’s a question with a hefty dollar figure. When the January snowstorms were followed by warmer weather, the city called in private crews to clear residential roads. But the cost was double what the city normally pays for snow removal. January’s bill was $24 million, and February is expected to be higher than normal as well. The total annual snow-clearing budget is $42.8 million. If the city changes the policy to clear residential roads to the pavement regularly, costs will certainly increase. The city did not have to call in private contractors Monday; it had 120 of its own plows and trucks out. The city got six centimetres of snow over the weekend and was expecting only two centimetres on Monday. “It’s not a major event,” Stephenson said. “On the residential streets, really we’ve had very little (complaints).” Inside the seniors’ drop-in downtown Monday, most were just hoping the ice would melt. “It’s no good for me. This is the first time I’ve been out with an artificial knee,” said Chris Williams, a volunteer receptionist. “It’s hard to get on buses.” “We had that one warm day,” said Sam Friedman, a retired provincial judge who worried Saturday was all the summer we are going to get. “Now we’re into winter again.” As for the best way to get through the winter, he said, it’s simple: “Sleep.” |
Wij blijven hier. ik ga niet mee met de vrouwen van school op een tripje Las Vegas of Mexico in een all-inclusive hotel. Wij houden nog even vol om eind Maart naar Vancouver te gaan met het gezin.
