Has to be one of the busiest times of the year for everyone up North. Had a rubber-necker run/slide right into the back of our engine just a couple hours ago at an MVA. Thank got it was the truck and not one of us.
Like you said Norm, Stay safe!
James, you got what hit us first. My department didn't have any calls , however, the surrounding area wasn't as fortunate. There were multiple rollovers and and single mva's. One department even had a car vs train to respond to. I guess it really is true..."you can't fix stupid.."
Come up here to Canada, we'll show ya want a good ol' snowfall looks like, and if you want we've even got some to spare! We've had snow on the ground up here for close to a month and the friggin freezing conditoins to go along with it (-40 to -50 degrees C with the wind chill). And still when the snow's on the ground, there's always those idiots that think "well i've go my snow tires on, so i'll drive like it's summer", and WHAM, into a tree.......so guy keep an eye out for that stupid driver who can't drive on snow, and is distracted easily by flashy red lights.
p.s. -50 degrees C is not fun firefighting weather........
We've had snow stay on the ground about two weeks in my part of Canada... intermittent before that... Yah, the first snowfall everywhere seems to bring out the Darwin factor in people... "OMG what's this white stuff??? Oh well, I am late for work so I'll drive like it's July....*CRUNCH*"
We've also been run off our feet with chimney and structure fires related to their wood stoves... people don't want to pay for a chimney cleaning service and end up with fires, fines (surprise, no working smoke alarms either!) and insurance claims.
We've been snowed under in the UK for the past 2 weeks, some parts of the UK have reported -21c, I'm in Camborne, Cornwall, south west England UK we are thawing out now but average temps for next week are 2-4c going minus at night. We haven't really had any snow related incidents............... just as I'm writing this a car just t-boned another car at the junction outside my station, no-one injured just minor dents. Keep warm, keep safe people