News Cut: February 4, 2011 Archive

Banning 'snow bombs'

Posted at 9:55 AM on February 4, 2011 by Bob Collins (14 Comments)
Filed under: Weather

An idea worth considering in Minnesota.

In Boston, the nation's snow capital these days, a lawmaker is tired of driving behind people who haven't cleared their cars of snow, and getting snow-bombed.

"We actually had in committee hearings in the last legislative session people who came in and testified who were physically injured in accidents where big chunks of ice came off from commercial vehicles, came through the windshield and seriously injured people, including in one case shearing somebody's ear right off," Rep. Cleon Turner told WBZ Radio.

Turner has filed a bill making it a crime to drive without clearing all the snow off a vehicle. Violations would cost $500.

There's good reason for this, of course, and the early line on Twitter is that this is a good idea for Minnesota. But "snow bombs" have their place. They're perfect, for example, for people who have run out of "blue juice."

Minneapolis: A warm Dallas

Posted at 4:00 PM on February 4, 2011 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Sports, Weather

Perhaps you know the type. They got tickets weeks ago to the Super Bowl, and spent an inordinate amount of time working into the conversation the fact they were going to a warm, sunny place in the dead of winter... and you weren't.

The current temperature in Dallas, Texas, the site of Sunday's Super Bowl: 27 degrees.

The current temperature in Minneapolis: 34 degrees.

We should feel sorry for them.