Does any of you USA alembicians who live in the colder states of USA suffer major infrastructure problems when the snow arrives.
We have just had a small fall of snow and the whole of the north east of england seems to grind to a halt!
schools close, major traffic jams, airports closing, trains delayed and we don't get anywhere near the amount some of you guys get.

Here in the Piedmont region of North Carolina the mere mention of snow results in panic buying of milk and bread and announcements of 2 hr delays the next morning. If it actually snows and sticks to the roads everything closes down for at least a day. The closures can be longer if the snow doesn't melt quickly. This is all for amounts that wouldn't even concern folks further up north.
 
Keith

Up here in Montreal, Canada we can get upwards of 30 centimeter (12 inch) snow dumps - last year 3 of them in a 10-day period!  The only thing that closes are the schools.  We've developed an efficienf snow clearing system that works for us so most major roads are open with business as usual.
 
Ellery (Lowlife)

Terry, lets be honest brits here - even WITHOUT snow we have major traffic jams, trains are delayed and the country grinds to a halt.
 
A case of grass greener on the other side? Absolutely!
 
Snow just compounds it further...yet another circumstance that makes me ask what the hell am I doing living in this country??
 
John.

Here in chicago it's just the same............if i pissed on the ground i could ice-skate in it!

white cloud..totally agree..my daughter works in Dubai and she sent some pics of her sitting at a beach bar in the sunset..yes what am I doing living here.
Anyway it has began to thaw so panic is over.

When I lived in Anchorage it could snow knee-deep over night and they'd have the roads cleared by lunch time.
 
Here in Indiana we've had our first dusting of snow and the state is already running low on road salt.
 
Several years ago our mayor made national news by stating that God put it there.  God can take it away.
 
John

terryc - but is your daughter having a beer at that beach bar? Some would call that a darn good reason not to move to an islamic country.

I grew up in Syracuse, NY. They average around 10 feet (3 meters) of snow a year because of lake effect snow from the Great Lakes. Somewhere I have a picture of telephone poles covered in a snow drift. Syracuse also has probably the best snow removal systems in the country, so it takes a lot of snow to have any effect there. I remember driving when it was snowing at a rate of 2 feet per hour, and at night when you can't even see the road in a white-out.  
 
Now I live in the Piedmont... Like Keith wrote, all it takes is for someone to mention snow and everyone goes into a panic. And if it actually does snow, people start driving their cars into ditches. Most people just stay home, which is the best thing to do around here.
 
Mike

Adriaan, I was in Dubai back in the early 1990's. It's true that alcohol isn't allowed there, but there are quite a few hotels that have bars. So, yes you can get drunk in Dubai.  Dubai is a lot more liberal than some other Arab countries. Actually, my sister is working near Dubai now, in Fujairah. It's a great place to visit.
 
Mike

Mike - I recently spent a weekend in Washington DC (crazy sort of sleep-over trip given that I live in Europe) and when ordering a beer to go with my meal at Dulles int'l airport I was asked for my ID to check my age.
 
It must have been my youthful looks - I'm 43 ...

When you're 15, you hate getting carded, but when you're 40-something, it's an honor. Other than that, it's just another dumb law  
 
Mike

What's the other? ;-)

Dubai looks great..more liberal than other islamic countries..that is why they attract the big contracts. The company she works for did some of the advertising for the new Atlantis Hotel which when opened made the Beijing Fireworks look like a small squib.
Do they use sand instead of salt in the USA/Canada, here in the UK there is talk of mixing brine & salt 70%/30% ratio to keep the roads clear but can you imagine the corrosive damage to vehicles since road salt is 20 times more corrosive than seawater. Ouch!!!

We use either a brine, sand/salt or pure salt depending upon the road. Fortunately we don't need it much in my area so the corrosion you see in the northern climates is not as much an issue here. When I lived in Chicago and New England it didn't take too many years to turn an auto into a rust heap.
 
 
Keith