Brazen Thieves In Ireland Go Over Top To Loot Store

Remains of an Irish supermarket after looters stole an
excavator during a snowstorm, knocked the building
down and looted it. 

There was a big snowstorm in Ireland last week, and some thieves really got brazen during the event.

They stole an excavtator from a snow removal crew, demolished a supermarket, and then went into the wreckage to loot the merchandise.

Geez!

Video of the event is at the bottom of this post.

According to The Guardian, eight men have been charged with theft, burglary and trespassing after going on the rampage amid Ireland's worst snowstorm in decades.

The theory these guys apparently had was emergency services were stretched thin because of the storm, so maybe they wouldn't notice the supermarket being torn down and looted.

The Guardian says this group also looted a second supermarket and vandalised and destroyed several cars. We're not sure why a snowstorm would inspire this, but whatever.

Here's the video:

Comparing Sandy and the Ongoing New England Blizzard

Maybe it's because I'm a weather geek, but I found two really intriguing satellite photos today. One shows Superstorm Sandy in late October, and the other shows today's blizzard gathering strength near the East Coast.

A satellite photo of Superstorm Sandy,
October, 2012 Norw rhe weather front coming in from the west.

In both cases, the vast storm systems really intensified off the East Coast. In both satellite photos, a storm coming from the west across the United States was about to be absorbed by the offshore storm, and would make each tempest that much stronger.

It's interesting that both Sandy and the current blizzard are both immense, record breaking, super strong storms, and both satellite photos are so comparable and show similar weather scenarios playing out.

Obviously, Sandy and today's blizzard are different from each other, having developed differently.  During Sandy, the builk of the destruction was in New Jersey and the New York metro area, and most of the damage was from a storm surge.  There was some snow during Sandy, particularly in West Virginia, but that wasn't the main feature of Sandy

During this storm, the main problem is snow. And the focus of the blizzard is New England, not New Jersey and New York. There is the risk of severe coastal flooding in Massachusetts, and there will be a lot of damage, but it won't be as bad as Sandy in that regard.

Blizard of '13 growing off the East Coast Friday. Similar to
Sandy note the weather front coming in from the west

I live in Vermont. During Sandy, Vermont got some effects, with some relatively minor wind damage and some power failures.

In this blizzard, we're getting a fair amount of snow, probably amounting to a foot on average. But that's not too extreme for Vermont. The snow is probably doing more good than harm because the ski resorts will surely benefit from this.

I don't know if the similarities in the two storms have any significance. But it's fascinating to see weather history, at least in part, repeat itself.

Code Red "French Toast Alert" in New England Blizzard

As anyone who has had the slightest contact with the Weather Channel knows, southern New England is about to get hit by a blizzard and EVERYBODY IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!

The Blizzard of '78 in South Boston.
Will things look the same there by Saturday?

Well, not really. But if everybody is going to hype this storm to death, I might as well, too.

New England has unique ways of dealing with storms, and storm warnings in particular. I especially like the French Toast Alert system in place to tell people how excited they ought to get about an impending storm.

The alert system refers to the rush to get milk, eggs and bread, all ingredients in French Toast in advance of a big storm.

The French Toast Alert System ranges from low to Guarded to Elevated to Severe, and the Boston area is in full Severe French Toast Alert mode.

According to the alert system, Severe means this: "RUSH to emergency supermarket now for multiple gallons of milk, cartons of eggs and loaves of bread.....IGNORE cries of little old lady you just trampled in mad rush to get last gallon of milk. Place pets in basement for use as emergency food supply if needed."

Up in far northwestern Vermont, where I live, I'm feeling left out of this hoopla because my area is on the outer fringes of the storm. That means I can expect four inches of snow with a 30 mph wind. Yawn. Especially compared to the two feet of snow and 60 mph winds in coastal New England.

So, I'll just watch the storm vicariously, as the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore ensures Boston's doom by showing up there, like he does in every city threatened by some sort of weather apocalypse.

In the New England vernacular, I'm sure Cantore won't say "blizzard warning." He'll just say, "Wicked stahm comin'"