Missouri Sunflower Man Battles City For Years For Inexplicable Reasons

The city of St. Peters, Missouri has been battling for
four years to force homeowner Chris Bank to get
rid of the annual sunflower display in his yard.

OK, I admit this post is only tangentially related to climate and weather, but it is about nature, so close enough.   

It's also one of the most inexplicable, infuriating legal battles I've ever seen.

Chris Bank of St. Peters, Missouri has grown a whole bunch of sunflowers in his yard since 2020.  And why not? They're pretty, pollinators love them, birds probably do, too, and it's a nice alternative from a boring lawn. 

The city of St. Peters doesn't feel the same way. All this hysteria against Bank and his sunflowers originated in 2021 as complaints from a homeowner's association. 

(Pro tip: NEVER buy a house in a neighborhood with an HOA.)

St. Peters officials enthusiastically joined the fray on the side of the HOA. Bank keeps finding loopholes that allow him to keep the sunflowers. The city also keeps changing the rules to coerce Bank into getting rid of all this sunny blooms,  but he won't budge.

I don't blame him. I don't know about you, but a sunflower always puts me in a better mood. The more sunflowers, the better the mood. 

The first year of the battle was in 2022.  St. Peters officials said he violated a rule in which the property need to have at least 50 percent grass coverage. But the property did have that much grass. It was just that sunflowers were also growing up through the grass.

Talk about micromanaging! A city telling people exactly how much lawn they should have?  Do they dictate which flowers, trees must be planted? What color car is parked in the garage? Where does it end? 

In 2023, Bank said the city revised the ordinance to allow enforcement via interpretation rather than measurement. A municipal judge find him. Bank appeared and the case was going to go to a jury in St. Charles County, Missouri. 

The city then withdrew its charges, probably because no sane jury would object to Bank's sunflowers, though St. Peters officials said they withdrew because the sunflowers had been removed. By the time they got around to the jury trial, it was November, so the sunflowers were gone for the season. 

Last year, a miserable woman trespassed and cut down at least 600 of the sunflowers in Bank's yard. She was caught on surveillance tape. He contacted police but prosecutors refused to take action, even though the identity of the vandal is known. She got away with it scot free. 

Because I'm sure some cranks in town thought the woman was a hero not the villain she was. 

This year, the city tried again by classifying sunflowers as a crop and limiting them to 10 percent of a  front yard. He's refused to remove his plants and is scheduled for another court appearance in September.  

Bank is the kind of rebel I can really get behind. He told Fox 2 in St. Louis that he won't give up, no matter how many times the city of St. Peters tries to change the ordinances. "I'm not going to quit this fight until this gets settled - at least settled the correct way," he said. 

 

Meteorologists Are Human, Let Them Be Human, Karen!

KTTC Meteorologist Nick Jansen briefly interrupts
his on air forecast on July 28 to text his wife,
warning her a dangerous storm was headed
their way and to get into the basement.
While most people praised Jansen, a few 
criticized him for caring about his family.

 Gawd, there's always somebody who has to complain about everything. 

Such was the case on July 28, when television meteorologist Nick Jansen was on the air at KTTC in Minnesota, warning viewers about dangerous storms passing through the region. 

Then he did what a few losers regarded as unthinkable.

After spending hours explaining how the storms packing 70 mph winds and threatening to drop some tornadoes were approaching, Jansen paused, and  pulled out his cell phone. He texted someone, taking all of maybe ten seconds to do so. Then he told viewers,  "Sorry, just had to text my wife, baby was sleeping,"

He wanted to make sure his family was safe, sheltering in their basement. 

That, apparently, was a high crime to a couple KTTC viewers. Apparently, Jansen's quick text was the height of unprofessionalism, because he dared think about his family while at work. The nerve!

 The person wrote to the station, saying "That he has to call his wife to make sure she takes the baby to safety? Maybe some people think it's noble or cute..... I don't."

Another email from someone, "You should  have told your wife before you went to work."

Well, tough shit, viewer. 

Jansen, to his credit, clapped back on Facebook. "That's not me being unprofessional... It's me being human. I am a husband and a father FIRST."

The person who complained was clearly in the minority, but still a pain in the butt.

Other viewers who saw Jansen text his wife on air took it as a public service, and a cue to take the storm seriously.   "I have heard from a couple of neighbors... They said once you said that about Angie heading to shelter, we're like, 'All right, we better take this seriously if Nick think it's going to impact our little community," Jansen wrote.

I probably would have thought the same thing. 

The incident went viral, mostly because the legions of normal people out there know Jansen did exactly the right thing, and complaining about him was dumb.  Outlets like Inside Edition, People, E! News and Today picked up the story 

Other meteorologists have had on air moments similar to Jansen's   Four years ago, James Spann, a legendary Alabama meteorologist and tornado expert, stopped on air during a severe weather outbreak to text his wife. The reason? A tornado was heading right toward his house.

Spann's wife did go into a tornado shelter, and Spann later told viewers after the storm had passed that his wife was safe.  Their house was damaged but largely intact.  

Television meteorologists - along with other newscasters - are routinely criticized for idiotic things that have nothing do do with their ability to deliver weather forecasts or the news. ABC Meteorologist Ginger Zee earlier this year was told by some dummy on social media, "You're not aging well." Zee replied, "What a privilege to be aging in any manner, thanks for your opinion, though."

A pregnant Seattle meteorologists was insulted by someone who believed her baby bump "distracted from her presentation."  

My answer to that viewer is "Stop staring, you pervert."

And don't even get me started on those who whine bitterly that their scheduled viewing of "The Real Housewives of Enosburg Falls" or whatever is interrupted by a meteorologist cutting into the broadcast to tell you a tornado is heading your way. 

TV meteorologists are there to tell you whether you need an umbrella tomorrow. Or more importantly, warn you when the weather gets dangerous. That's it. 

If you don't like they way they're  dressed, or have a family, or a personal life, or private personal opinions, shut up already. Nobody wants to hear it. 

 

 

 

 he explained to viewers 

Another DOGE/Trump Casualty: Crucial Carbon Dioxide Monitoring At Hawaii Site

This is the record dating back 67 years of atmospheric
carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, as
measured on Mauna Loa, Hawaii.  Trump and his
Musk/DOGE crowd apparently want to end these decades-
long observations. The excuse is saving money, but
likely just as much climate denial.

 Another likely casualty of Trump and the DOGE morons: A historic, closely watched, important constant measurement of global atmosphere carbon dioxide could be about to go by the wayside. 

Elon Musk and his DOGE minions want to shut down the more than six decade long science experiment  conducted on a Hawaii volcano.  

Per USA Today:

"Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is considering terminating the lease of a tiny office that supports a huge climate science experiment - one that's been ongoing for 67 years." 

Only eight people work at the office, Suite 102 at the Kilauea Financial Plaza in Hilo.  Once a week or so, one of the employees takes a quick helicopter ride up to a spot 11,135 feet above sea level on a high slope of the Mauna Loa volcano.

Doesn't sound like a big deal, but this is.  The scientists  do several observations of the atmosphere, and one of these regular observations is one of the most precise and long running, and most watched climate experiments in the world. 

The scientists have been tracking carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for 60 years. This long-running experiment provided the first significant, concrete evidence that the earth' CO2 levels were steadily rising, as USA Today reported.

The Mauna Loa site is perfect for these measurements, as NOAA tells us: "The observatory protrudes through the strong marine temperature inversion layer present in the region, which separate the more polluted lower portions of the atmosphere from the much cleaner free troposphere. 

"The undisturbed air, remote location, and minimal influence of vegetation and human activity at MLO are ideal for monitoring constituents in the atmosphere that can cause climate change."

The DOGE people say closing the Hilo facility would save $164,000 or so. That's not much given the size of the overall federal budget.  My conspiratorial mind wants to think it's because climate change i central to the Mauna Loa site, and we all know how Trump hates it when somebody dares to say climate change is an actual thing. 

I'm not the only one thinking this way. In it's journalistic way, the Washington Post beat around the bush a little but you'll get the point in this excerpt from their article:

"Data collected from the observatory have shown global carbon dioxide levels - the most significant driver behind record planetary warming - are rising faster than ever recorded. Trump has been dismissive of that data and the consensus around climate change and his allies who wrote the policy playbook Project 2025 proposed dismantling NOAA, calling it a source of climate alarmism." 

Climate scientist Michael Mann, posted his reaction to all this on Bluesky was, as usual, more blunt.   "See no climate change, hear no climate change, and speak no climate change."

As usual, the Trump/DOGE crowd don't seem to be coordinating things or understanding what is going on. 

If the Hilo office closes, the Mauna Loa observatory would still be there, but with the office gone and the staff fired, if Musk gets his way, there will be nobody to do the actual work up there. 

There's another testing site on Mauna Kea, another volcano nearby, but again, that site needs NOAA staff to maintain the equipment. 

Not only is the climate data from Mauna Loa valuable, and a resource we might be about to lose, but the move to shut this all down gets rid of history, too.

Back in 1958, scientist Charles David Keeling began the measurements in 1958.  His measurements made two important discoveries. He was the first person to record Earth's breathing  - a regular rhythm of peaks and valleys in carbon dioxide concentrations.  

This proved that seasonally, plants take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when they're growing, and release it back when the growing season is over and the plants died.

Even more importantly, he was the first to prove that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were rising due to fossil fuel emissions. This discovery really laid the foundation to the detailed climate change science we have today. 

Before the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was at around 280 parts per million. When Keeling first started measuring in 1958, it was up to 313 parts per million. Now, we're up to 427 parts per million and still going up. 

That amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere sounds like a trifle to the untrained eye. But the last time carbon dioxide levels were this high was about 3 million years ago. At that time, sea levels were as much as 30 feet higher than they are now, and camel-like animals roamed the forested high Arctic, which is nowadays covered in ice.  

That's part of the future we face at least someday due to our sky-high emissions of fossil fuels over the past 150 years or so. 

Trump To People Threatened By Dangerous Weather: Drop Dead

Friday's firing of hundreds of staffers at NOAA,
including the National Weather Service, put
American lives in danger, but the Trump
administration is unconcerned about that. 

As expected and dreaded, the Trump administration, led by the Elon Musk putting public safety during extreme weather events in jeopardy. 

The firings include positions at the already-understaffed National Weather Service, which is the nation's front line warning system for when storms turn dangerous. 

Exact numbers are hard to come by, but it looks like about 10 percent of NOAA's work force would lose their jobs. 

The first test of how these cutbacks will affect public safety could come as early as Tuesday and Wednesday, as a potentially significant tornado outbreak seems possible across the Deep South. 

Such outbreaks of severe weather require a high level of attention from meteorologists because such conditions evolve quickly. A harmless thunderstorm can become tornadic in minutes, and the National Weather Service needs to be ready to issue warnings. 

A lack of staff could mean key hints that a tornado is forming could be missed.

Per the Washington Post:

"Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, said the move to fire NOAA staff 'including mission-critical and life-saving roles at the National Weather Service is profoundly alarming'

'I want to be clear: If there were to be large staffing reductions at NOAA and NWS...there will be people who die in extreme weather events and weather-related disasters who would not have otherwise.'"

The firings include about 375 probationary employees at the National Weather Service. The pre-existing short staffing there is due in large part to a previous hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration. 

Also on Friday, news broke that a federal judge ruled the mass firings of probationary government works across several agencies are probably illegal. The judge ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind directions ordering the mass firings.

It's unknown how this ruling will ultimately affect the firings at NOAA and other agencies. 

Already the cutbacks are being felt. The National Weather Service routinely launches balloons into the air so minute details of atmospheric conditions can be assessed. This data is fed into forecasting computer models. 

Balloon launches are already being canceled due to new staff shortages, so the quality of these forecasting models might well diminish.  That's especially bad when emergency managers are trying to get an idea in advance of where a severe storm might go and how bad it will get.  This helps them pre-position supplies in the path of the storm to get an early jump on recovery. 

Worse climate models will mean worse, more inaccurate forecasts. 

Besides, a lot of FEMA workers have been canned by Trump and Musk, too. The combination FEMA and National Weather Service firings will certainly mean emergency responses to U.S. weather disasters will become much worse. Again, unnecessarily threatening lives. 

Your local TV meteorologist will be affected by the cutbacks as well. They rely on data from the NOAA and the National Weather Service to formulated their forecasts. If the data degrades because the NWS firings, so will the TV meteorologists' forecasting accuracy, no matter how talented that meteorologist is. 

Well known, professional meteorologists around the nation condemned the firings. "Mass firings have started at the National Weather Service, including people in critical roles. Cutting waste is great. Mindlessly taking a sledgehammer to a valuable organization is stupid. All the know-it-alls who said we were fabricating this threat can shut up now, thanks," said Josh Morgerman on X.  Morgerman is a well -known hurricane and typhoon chaser and documentarian. 

When the decision to fire NOAA staffers seemed imminent but hadn't quite happened yet, veteran meteorologist (and one of the nation's top tornado experts) had this to say on X:

"The post is not about politics, but about support for my friends that work for the National Weather Service, part of NOAA, a federal agency.

NWS meteorologists work long, hard hours serving the people of this country, not only during times of severe weather, but on routine days as well,

Their surface and upper air observation networks along with computer models radars and satellites are critical for all meteorologists, including those of us in the private sector."

There is already some political pushback to the NOAA firings. We'll see what happens with those. Colorado Sens. John Hickenlooper (D) and Michael Bennet (D) and Rep. Joe Negus (D) have called for an independent investigation into the mass firings, according to The Hill. 

I know this seems awfully conspiratorial, but I think a goal of the Trump administration is to have people live in fear. They're easier to control that way. So they fear having Medicaid, and Social Security taken away. 

The NOAA firings are another form of fear: Will we still receive adequate warnings when severe weather threatens?

This is all also likely to be a part of Project 2025, the wide ranging 922-page plan developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation to remake the federal government under Trump. 

Trump seems to be playing by the Project 2025 playbook. That plan called for privatizing weather forecasting in the U.S.  That, would, of course, make weather forecasting less reliable, and perhaps put critical weather warnings behind paywalls that some people might not be able to afford. 

I still worry we're heading in that direction, which would be even worse that the stupid, ill-advised NOAA firings we saw on Friday. 

This also all could further enrich Trump. Musk and other U.S. oligarchs. Hey, if the billionaires are able to collect a few extra billion beyond what they already have, it's worth the price of lost lives. At least in their rotten minds. 

 

 

Wednesday Evening Vermont Update: As Freeze Looms, Deep Snow "Snoliage" Gorgeous, Tourists, Not So Much

Snoliage near Stowe, Vermont this morning. 

 As more reports came in from the mountains of Vermont and New York today, the snow amounts on the summits seemed more and more impressive. 

Especially for October. 

The summit of Jay Peak had a good foot of snow. At Underhill State Park, Vermont, at a 3,300 foot elevation on the upper slopes of Mount Mansfield, 11 inches was measured. Across the pond, at a spot very close to the summit of Whiteface Mountain, the snow was 15 inches deep.

Snow amounts diminished rapidly as you went downhill in elevation. But the snow extended down the slopes far enough to offer a treat to the leap peepers rampaging through Vermont. 

I headed up to Smuggler's Notch and Stowe this morning to check out the snoliage, and everything was predictably stunning with the colored leaves and white snow. There's video proof at the bottom of this post you can check out. 

OH, THOSE TOURISTS

Most of the tourists were happy and great, but some of them made it obvious why some Vermonters roll their eyes at out of state leaf peepers.

What the hell, the dumber variety of tourists give us all a bit of a bemused chuckle. 

There's plenty of pull-offs along Route 108 through Smugglers Notch to stop and take photos. Also the Smuggler's Notch and Stowe ski areas have large parking lots where you can stop, get out of your car and admire the mountains and snow and leaves around you.  

I had to shake my head and laugh, though at the behavior of some tourists. At no fewer than three entrances to large ski area parking lots, tourists pulled their vehicles over across the entrances so that nobody else could enter the parking lots - which each had room for at least 100 cars. 

Some people honked horns trying to get in, but the tourists who blocked the entrances pretended not to hear them.  

Snoliage near Smuggler's Notch, Vermont this morning. 

On a particularly winding part of Route 108 through the notch, somebody stopped in the middle of the road on a blind corner to take pictures. I stopped in time. 

The guy by the stopped SUV kept waving me to go around him, ignoring the fact that there was a line of traffic in the opposite lane coming through. What, he wanted to see a head on collision?

On another blind corner, another SUV parked in the middle of the opposite lane, facing the wrong way.  That held up about two dozen  cars while the two occupants of that stopped car frolicked in the snow on the side of the road. 

At another spot, a car with three young women got stuck in the snow in a pull-off.  Myself and three or four other men tried to help. There was only about three inches of slush beneath the car but whatevs. Her car had bald tires, but what the hell, we were up to the challenge of getting them out and on their way.

And a challenge it was!  We'd clear snow from around her tires, tell the woman to keep her wheels straight and then gradually hit the gas going backwards to get out. She repeatedly turned the wheel sharply and gunned it. 

So yeah, it took awhile. 

At one point, I cleared snow from around the tires with my bare hands, causing one of my fingers to bleed just a tiny bit. As we finally freed the car, I noticed a little of my blood was left on the hood of the car. I can't decide whether I hope the young women notice or don't notice.

Also, at a trailhead, I spotted a woman setting off on an apparent hike in shorts. It was about 35 degrees with a gusty winds. Hope she wasn't going far! 

But the vast majority of the tourists playing in the snow seemed happy, normal and considerate, so that was great. I got there early, and hightailed it out of the Stowe/Smugglers Notch area as traffic really began to pick up late in the morning. It must have been an absolute zoo there this afternoon. 

FROSTY NIGHT

The frost advisory in the Champlain Valley for tonight and early Thursday was upgraded to a freeze warning in most of that area, as temperatures are forecast to get to or a little below freezing. Finish your emergency frost harvest from your garden this evening.

That said, the frost and freeze is conditional on whether it clears up overnight. Clear, calm nights this time of year is how you get frosts and freezes. 

Dry air coming in from the northwest should clear up the thick, low clouds that were over much of Vermont late this afternoon. But there's a chance an inversion could keep them in place.  If that happens, it won't get as cold as forecast.

But if clouds keep your garden from turning into frozen mush tonight, you're not out of the woods. Sure,  it'll be a little warmer under sunshine Thursday and even warmer Friday. But the dry air coming in ensures clear, calm weather Thursday and Friday nights. That opens everyone up to more freezing temperatures, especially Thursday night. 

The literally bright side of all this is, with sunny skies tomorrow, the snow capped mountains and the fall foliage should continue to make the scenery absolutely sublime. 

Let's just hope the tourists behave. 

Video: Snoliage scenes around Stowe and Smugglers Notch, Vermont today. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that.

 

Videos: What Not To Do In Tornadoes, And Some Remarkable Tornado Footage

 It really has been a season of tornadoes this spring.

Screen grab from dash cam video showing a tornado
destroying a large building in Lincoln, Nebraska
back in late April 

We just got through the worst outbreak of the year, with something like 21 deaths at last count. That brings the total number of tornado deaths this year to 36.  

That's terrible, of course, but still in a sense good given the huge number of tornadoes we had this year - more than 1,000 in the United States already in 2024. 

The last time a tornado season was busier than this was in 2011, when 543 Americans died in tornadoes through the end of May. 

This year's  activity is starting to die down, starting today, but tornado threats aren't going to entirely go away this week.  And you never know whether new swarms of big twisters will hit in June. 

Since everything is on camera these days, the tornadoes and storms have yielded some pretty wild, and some pretty head shaking videos.

The videos display the extreme power of the tornadoes, and in some cases, the poor thinking among some people in the face of these storms. Some examples are in this post. 

I'm not going to put the videos directly in the post. I'll put links that you'll click on. That way, the people who created the videos will get the views and the credit. These videos certainly are worth the clicks. 

Moore, Oklahoma

No fewer than 17 tornadoes have hit the city of Moore, Oklahoma since 1893. Some of them, like ones in 1893, 1973, 1999, 2003, 2010 and 2013.

So you'd think the fine citizens of Moore would be well-versed on what to do when a tornado warning sounds. Most people there are indeed smart about tornadoes. But there's always a few.

On May 6, Moore and surrounding areas were put under a tornado warning, and a twister did touch down close to Oklahoma City's Will Rogers Airport a few miles to the north. 

After the tornado, Live Storms Media posted an infuriating video showing cars taking shelter beneath a highway overpass in Moore.  First of all, underpasses are dangerous because they funnel already strong tornadic winds, easily blowing everyone away.  (Click on this link to view).

In this case, it didn't happen, but the cars parked beneath the overpass were blocking other cars from moving. That's important if anyone was trying to get away from an impending tornado by racing up the highway. Never mind any emergency vehicles that were trying to get through. 

Occupants of those cars parked there were the ultimate in selfishness.

Lincoln, Nebraska

On April 26, an intense tornado passed through the Lincoln, Nebraska area, obviously doing a lot of damage. The video in this section  (click on this link) shows the tornado crossing a road and hitting a train. 

Screen grab from video showing people being pelted
by debris from a tornado beneath a Lincoln, Nebraska
overpass. We don't know why these people got out of their
vehicle, and the video shows that they could have 
turned around on a wide street and driven away
from the tornado, 

As you can early in the video, there's cars wisely driving away from the tornado. As the storm chaser continues filming the tornado, you see three people near the pillar of another highway overpass.

Eventually they get pelted by debris, as they're not even really smart enough to get on the protected side of the pillar. 

The storm chaser at least got in his car for some protection. These other bozos had plenty of opportunity before this happened to get in their car, make a U-turn and drive away from the tornado like other motorists. I have no idea why they stayed out there like that.

Certainly, potential Darwin Award winners there. 

Did you notice the train in the video I linked to above? A couple of people were in the train when the tornado scored a direct hit on it. Click on this link to see what it looked like to them. 

Lincoln, Nebraska (again)

Click on this link to watch dash cam video of how fast the April 26 tornado wiped out an industrial building. Several dozen people were in the structure at the time, but they had fled to a tornado safe room ahead of the storm and escaped injury 

Temple, Texas

Teslas are equipped with a bunch of cameras, of course. So what happens when it records a May 22  tornado scoring a direct hit on it? Find out by clicking on this link.   The video shows different angles, including behind and in front of the car.

The occupants of the Tesla had fled into a nearby restaurant and were not injured. The dude who you'll see pull in with his truck during the worst of it must have had quite a scare. 

Valley View, Texas

Up to 80 people crowded into a busy gas station and truck stop along Interstate 35 as a tornado approached this past Saturday. Click on this link to watch a video taken inside the gas station and  convenience store as the tornado ripped it apart. Nobody inside the store was killed and none of them suffered life-threatening injuries. 

The May 25 tornado did, however kill seven people in an near Valley View.

Portage, Michigan

Somebody in Portage, Michigan used to have a lovely yard with fantastic old trees. That is until a tornado swept through on May 7. Click on this link to watch every tree in the yard sadly crash to the ground. 

Reportedly, the falling trees missed the house, and the home itself sustained only minor damage. 

Frigid January Kansas City Chiefs Playoff Game Resulted In Frostbite, Amputations

This fan was probably among those hospitalized for 
frostbite and hypothermia during a subzero Kansas
City Chiefs playoff game in January. It's coming to 
light now that some people who attended the game
are undergoing amputations due to frostbite

 Some NFL football fans are clearly too enthusiastic.    

During the nation's only substantial cold snap of the winter, thousands of fans watched live in the stadium as the Kansas City Chiefs won their January 14 playoff game against the Miami Dolphins 26-7.

The temperature at kickoff was minus 4 degrees, with a wind chill of 27 below.  

Personally, even if I was an extreme Chiefs fan, I would have watched the game from the warm, dry comfort of my living room.

Surely, some people are seriously regretting going to that game.  According to the Associated Press, here's why: 

"Some of the people who attended the near-record cold Kansas City Chiefs playoff game in January had to undergo amputations after suffering frostbite, a Missouri hospital said Friday.

Research Medical Center didn't provide exact numbers but said in a statement that it treated dozens of people who had experienced frostbite during an 11-day cold snap in January. Twelve of those people - including some who were at the January 13 game - had to undergo amputations involving fingers and toes. And the hospital said more surgeries are expected over the next two to four weeks as 'injuries evolve.'"

Even mild frostbite is painful, as I remember when I dealt with superficial frostbite on my toes and feet when I was in high school. It formed blisters which were really uncomfortable. And this was a minor case that did no permanent damage.

More severe frostbite sounds gross and awful from the start. The Mayo Clinic website says "The tissue turns black and hard as it dies."

Amputations are a worst case scenario with frostbite, but even those who manage to avoid that, some people will face a lifetime of joint aches, sensitivity to cold, long term numbness in affected areas and an increased risk of getting frostbite again.  

Nominee For World's Most Moronic Snow Plow Operator

Video still showing a clueless snow plow driver in Ohio 
blithely spraying chunks of ice and slush into 
the opposite lane of the Ohio Turnpike, damaging 50
cars and injuring 12 people. 

 I live on what is officially a Vermont State Highway, (Route 36) so trucks from the Vermont Agency of Transportation plow snow and spread salt on the road that runs in front of my house. 

I'm always impressed by how professionally and promptly clear the roads at all hours of the day. 

I'm also pretty sure highway crews in other states are just as good at their jobs.

But there's bad apples everywhere. Which takes us to the Ohio Turnpike in Erie County, Ohio. There, a clueless plow truck driver and moron decided to cause some havoc.

The stuff he was clearing from the westbound lanes of the Ohio Turnpike consisted of heavy slush and chunks of ice.  The driver could have arranged the plow to push the slush off the right side of the highway, or at least go slow enough so the ice wouldn't go all over the place if he wanted to clear it in the opposite direction.

Instead, the oblivious idiot went fast enough to propel the slush and ice over a median barrier and onto traffic in the eastbound lanes of the Turnpike. For two whole miles at least.  

He did this without seeming to notice he was wrecking car after car and causing a number of accidents. By the time Moron Plow Driver was done, at least 50 cars were damaged and 12 people had injuries. Luckily, none of the injuries were life threatening.

Which is a miracle. Video of the incident showed numerous tractor trailers on the highway, which could have lost control during the incident and flattened smaller cars.

News video, which includes a video of the slush and ice being dumped on the highway and smashing into cars and causing crashes, is at the bottom of this post. 

Needless to say, the motorist affected are wicked pissed. People were stranded without cars.  Owners of damaged cars were told to file a police repot and the the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission would deal with insurance claims.

But other than that, everybody was on their own. One woman from Youngstown with a damage car was just dumped at a local McDonald's and told to figure out on her own how to get home. 

The Commission put the Moron Plow Driver on administrative leave pending an investigation. They also did some drug and alcohol checks on the guy.

The Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission statement, included in this news report, is a triumph of vacuous PR damage control attempts, but it's so florid that whoever wrote it was really desperate.

They smell the lawsuits coming.

I don't mean to disparage that whole commission, as I'm sure most of them are cool and know what they're doing. But yikes!

By the way, the vast majority of crashes involving snow plows are not the fault of the snow plow drivers.  Seems like other motorists can't seem to avoid smashing into what we would think are highly visible, big trucks with flashing lights. But what to I know?   

Despite my high confidence in Vermont snow plow drivers, I'm going to be more than a bit careful when I see the plow's wave of snow coming my way. 

Here's the news video that includes the images of the plow spray that snow and slush. The video report says 40 cars were damaged but that was later updated to 50 or so.   Either click on this hyperlink, or view below: