Snow And Ice

Following Dad in Alps; A Memorable PlaceBy Marylane Yingling Soeffing, Special to the SunThe train climbs steadily through the long, steep tunnel. Windows frame images of dark rock. Cold, damp air penetrates the car. The tunnel, constructed from 1896 to 1912, bores through the Eiger and Monch mountains in Switzerland's Bernese Alps. The terminus is Europe's highest railway station, Jungfraujoch, 11,333 feet above sea level.Seventy-one years ago, my dad, as a young man, rode through this tunnel to the "top of Europe."

Snow emergency plans were put into effect yesterday in Allegany and Garrett counties, where snow and ice caused minor traffic accidents and forced the closing of Interstate 68 temporarily.Up to 2 inches of snow was forecast for the region, but state police said icy conditions caused problems last night, forcing the closing of I-68 for about a half-hour."We have had a lot of minor accidents but nothing major," said Cpl. Jim Pyles of the Cumberland barracks in Allegany County. He said snow started to fall about 8 p.m.Flurries fell throughout Central Maryland, including Baltimore, where today's forecast calls for partly sunny skies with highs in the low to mid-30s.

There's a sure way to speed up the impeachment trial. Omit the defense.Actual snow and ice are not required to paralyze Bawlamer and Washington. The very thought suffices.Delaware has its own quarter. It always was a two-bit state.Madeleine told Peter the O's may play in Havana, but somebody better check it out with Fidel.Pub Date: 1/06/99

IT'S THE LITTLE things that happen in Baltimore that constantly fascinate me.Take for example, this past Sunday night, when I emerged from BWI airport after a flight in from Chicago. Chicago was bitterly frigid. So was Baltimore.On the cab ride home I could not help but notice that there had been an unexpected snow and ice storm while I was away. As the taxi moved along Pratt Street, and northward along Calvert, I could see it was one of those tenacious January snows whose effects do not evaporate or melt quickly.

The next time snow and ice make for a slippery commute in the Baltimore area, city schools chief Robert Booker says he will have more people observing weather conditions, consider delayed school openings and communicate better with parents and students through the system's cable channel.At a public forum last night in the Hamilton Middle School gym attended by 200 parents and school staff members, Booker admitted that he "made a mistake" Thursday when he opened schools after snow, ice and freezing rain had closed every other metropolitan area school system.

Few places this cold offer so much warmth.Until 20 years ago, February was just another frigid month in Ottawa, notable mostly as a kind of halfway point through the long Canadian winters. Since the 1970s, however, February has been party time in Ottawa.Sure, it's cold during the Winterlude festival, but it has to be. Otherwise, you couldn't enjoy snow golf, snow mazes, two-story-tall ice slides, horse-drawn sleigh rides, barrel-jumping competitions, dog-sled and snowmobile races, ice skating on frozen lakes and canals, hot chocolate and hot buttered rum around bonfires and ice sculptures catching the light from fireworks displays.

Whether in the city or counties, readers think snow effort 0) was badI spent hours upon hours of backbreaking shoveling digging out from the Blizzard of '96 to make my sidewalks passable, as did most of my neighbors and tens of thousands of people throughout the metro area.I had them cleared down to the concrete without a trace of ice or snow left on them. It was a good feeling of accomplishment. . . Neighbors could now walk past my house without any difficulty even though my lower back was in so much pain I could barely stand upright and I was on a steady diet of Motrin.

The Hampstead town code requires property owners to shovel their sidewalks free of snow and ice within six hours of a snowfall.If that is not possible, sidewalks must be cleared by 10 a.m. the next day.Town officials ask that property owners be considerate of others by clearing sidewalks as promptly as possible.Information: 234-7408.

AT THE HEIGHT of last week's first snowstorm, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. joked with Gov. Parris N. Glendening about the importance of snow removal to his 1998 re-election bid.Mr. Miller cited the oft-told tale of Jane M. Byrne's defeat of Chicago Mayor Michael A. Bilandic in that city's 1979 Democratic primary. Ms. Byrne walloped Mr. Bilandic, who was supported by former Mayor Richard J. Daley's machine, by beating the incumbent about the head and ears with the issue of snow removal -- or the lack thereof.

The best part of having a snowstorm is listening to people talk about the way things used to be. After our last heavy snow, I ran into one of my older friends and said to him, "Some snowstorm, huh?""Snowstorm? Snowstorm? You call that a snowstorm? A measly few inches? That wasn't a snowstorm, that was hardly a dusting. Heck, I can remember when I was a kid, we used to have serious snow. Not like this. Course, everything was different back then. In those days we had real weather. I can remember having to crawl to school in snow tunnels the snow was so deep, 16, 18 feet at least.

State road crews prepared for a late-season storm that began with wet flakes about 7:30 p.m. yesterday. Forecasters were predicting the storm could hit Maryland with anything from a few inches to a foot of snow. Predictions of heavier accumulations east of Baltimore led Anne Arundel County officials to announce last night that public schools would be closed today. More than 2,700 personnel and 324,000 tons of salt are "on the ready" for the storm, Gov. Martin O'Malley said, as are more than 2,400 pieces of equipment from the State Highway Administration and Maryland Transportation Authority.

Will Baltimore ever get a decent snowfall? Some forecasters believe they're seeing a shift in continental weather patterns that could send more storms our way, starting next week. We'll be sandwiched between cold air to the north and moist air to the south. Storms tracking eastward along the boundary will throw the wet air into the cold, making snow and ice. Kids! Pajamas inside-out!

Here we are, ignorant peasants in our mud huts at the base of the volcano of finance, begging the gods to spare us as the ground shakes beneath our feet and economists examine the entrails of pigeons and the shamans of the Federal Reserve fling handfuls of sacred powder into the steaming crater. We live with a system rejiggered by Republicans - freedom from regulation, but when the manure hits the ventilator, the Feds step in with a few hundred billion to rescue the players - and nobody can tell us ignorant savages how rough the upheaval might be. Nobody knows.

Marylanders faced the grim prospect of an ice storm today, with sleet and freezing rain predicted to fall throughout the day on top of a few inches of overnight snow. It's the latest in a series of small but troublesome storms this season that have vexed the forecasters assigned to pinpoint when and where the precipitation will fall - and how much - in all its forms. "These storms are fun to forecast, but also very stressful to forecast," said Marisa Ferger of the Pennsylvania State University Weather Communications Group in State College.

It only takes a little bit of snow and ice in Baltimore to produce a big mess. Just 1.3 inches of snow and a half-inch of ice fell yesterday at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in the worst winter storm to hit Central Maryland this year, according to the National Weather Service. But the aftermath - including power outages, school closings, flight cancellations and delays, and the inevitable fender-benders - told the real story. About 90,000 homes and businesses served by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. in the Baltimore metropolitan area lost electricity - more than 65,000 of them in Anne Arundel County, and mostly because of snow and ice-laden tree branches falling on power lines, said company spokeswoman Linda Foy. More outages were expected as forecasters predicted wind gusts up to 40 mph overnight.

This year, as the wintry air starts nipping at your nose, remember that it's also nipping at your house. Here are some ways to protect your home from winter damage due to chill, snow, ice and wind: Clean your gutters. Melting snow and ice should be able to flow freely to the ground. If the once-frozen water's path is disrupted - a condition called ice damming - it could seep into the house. Trim overhanging, damaged or dead tree branches. Accumulation of snow or ice on branches, or even strong winds, can cause weak limbs to break.

. The floating cap of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank this summer to what is probably its smallest size in at least a century, continuing a trend toward less summer ice, a team of climate experts reported yesterday. That shift is hard to explain without attributing it in part to human-caused global warming, they and other experts on the region said. The change also appears to be becoming self-sustaining: the increased open water absorbs solar energy that would otherwise be reflected back into space by bright white ice, said Ted A. Scambos, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.

ANCHORAGE // Melting snow has triggered the warmest summers across Arctic Alaska in at least 400 years, setting in motion tree and shrub growth that will accelerate warming by two to seven times as the century unfolds. The slow expansion of the tundra's snow-free season by about 2.5 days per decade since the 1960s explains 95 percent of the recent rise in summer temperatures, and is far more influential than changes in vegetation, sea ice, atmospheric circulation or clouds, according to a report published in Science Express.

Pilots of corporate and general aviation planes should not take off with any amount of snow, ice or frost on the tops of wings, federal air safety officials said in an unusually broad warning issued yesterday. The alert from the National Transportation Safety Board referred specifically to the crash of a Challenger 601 in Montrose, Colo., last month that killed three of the six people on board, including the son of NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol. "The bottom line is that pilots should be aware that no amount of snow, ice or frost accumulation on the wing upper surface can be considered safe for takeoff," NTSB said in its alert.

Volunteers sought to clear snow, ice for aged, disabled The Department of Citizen Services is recruiting volunteers to help clear sidewalks and driveways during snow and ice storms. Volunteers will assist neighbors who or elderly or physically disabled. Howard County code requires homeowners to clear snow and ice from sidewalks that adjoin their properties within 48 hours. Information: Regina Jenkins, 410-313-1417. Emergency unlocking of car doors offered Pop-A-Lock of Columbia will unlock cars free of charge, when a child or an elderly or a disabled person is locked in the vehicle.