Owen Corley

Thor was no longer a frog! This was cause for celebration, and also meant class was not canceled again. Instead, the students would enter the Danger Shop to find themselves in their pavilion, with hot drinks on hand and snowdrifts several feet high all around them.

"Those who live near the Great Lakes, or perhaps Lake Baikal or certain seas, will be familiar with lake-effect snow," Thor told his students. "This is when cold air moves across warmer waters for an extended period of time, picking up moisture from the lake in the lower layers of the air mass and freezing it in the upper layers. Once it reaches the shores and is no longer collecting more moisture, the moisture falls as snow, resulting in heavy precipitation to the tune of even several inches per hour. Buffalo, New York, for instance, once recorded more than eighty-two inches of snow in four days.

"Obviously, this can cause great difficulties for inhabitants of these regions. Roofs may be at risk of collapse under the great weight of the snow, and one can only dig out paths and cars so much. The drifts may be at risk of collapse, even, and may take up space such that some locations, such as parking lots, may need to have them removed to an alternate location. There is much to consider when precipitation does not merely sink into the ground, but perhaps the answer is to learn to live alongside the snow, and accept the shape of the seasons." Easy to say when you weren't the one who might have to exit your house through an upstairs window.

"This snow, unlike the snow outside, will not stain you, so you are free to enjoy it. Or, if you would rather be colorful, you can leave and go enjoy the true weather."