Another Earth Warming Incident? The Biggest Snow in Shanghai in Over 100 Years

I just sent my son to the airport to go home for the CNY the day before when a slightly heavier that usual snow fell leaving some snow on the trees and roof top.  Then, more snow came and fell all night long.  The picture shows how the normally greeny view outside my window looked like the next morning.  The next day, for the first time in Shanghai, I slipped and fell on my side on the pavement as I tried to make my way to my class.  At noon, as we had our lunch on the ground floor of a restaurant with a big glass window, for the first time, we could enjoy the view of the endless snow flakes, some look as big as the bird's feather.

Of course, for the folk from the cold countries, this is nothing unusual; however, for the Shanghai inhabitants which had had no more than one or two centimetres of snow at the heaviest time, this is very abnornal.  Some older folks in my apartment confirmed that they had not seen anything like this in their 80 years life time. 

Just imagine, what would happened if this happen to Chiengmai or Bangkok.  That's exactly what happened in Canton and nearby provinces which had days of snows and frozen rain after over a century or so without any snow.  What came with this freak snow storm was the impact of the unpreparedness of the normally considered snow and ice free territories.  Power line tower made of steel  collapsed after inches of ice built up on its frame and its power lines.  Something like over 3,000 of such power line tower in the southern provinces collapsed causing black out to the already freezing homes.  The power blackout further disrupted the electrified rail transportation in these provinces while millions were holding their hard-to-get tickets awaiting to go home for the CNY.  It was reported that over 500,000 passengers crowded the front lawns of Guangzhou Railway Station hoping for the chance to catch a train home.  As a result approximately 5-6 million migrant workers in these province had to take the local government's suggestion, that is, to celebrate their CNY away from home where they work.

At first, I was really glad to see such snow capped tree tops.  Then as, I realized that the weather forecasts had been consistently understating the upcoming severe weather for days. Then, I decided to stock up my kitchen with up to 10 days of food and supplies, expecting the worse to come.

From the picture, you might notice approximately 5 cms of snow on my clothes drying poles.  That might tell the story.

Well, folk, I guess you are quite tired of my political writing and the writning about the exchange students.  So, here you are, a different kind of blog from me.