Latest IssueNewsline ArchiveSubscribe to Newsline

Links
"InterFaces "
"Worldwide Fusion Links"
"ITER on Facebook"
"ITER on YouTube"

Conferences
16 Sept - 20 Sept, 2013
Int'l Symposium on Fusion Nuclear Technology (ISFNT)
Barcelona, Spain
13 Oct - 17 Oct, 2013
World Energy Congress (WEC)
Daegu, Korea
20 Oct - 26 Oct, 2013
16th International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials (ICFRM-16)
Bejing, China
21 Oct - 25 Oct, 2013
"TRITIUM 2013" - 10th International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology
Nice, France
27 Oct - 30 Oct, 2013
3rd European Energy Conference
Budapest, Hungary
See more ...
"ITER Newsline" n'est pas disponible en français.
Pour lire les nouvelles en français, veuillez consulter "Les Actualités d'ITER", disponible ici...
iter newsline 12 Janv, 2009 - #64
White mess
-Sabina Griffith		 << return to Newsline #64
News

Only a few dared the elements on Wednesday morning... (Click to view larger version...)
Only a few dared the elements on Wednesday morning...
...that offered spectacular scenes, both on the ground as in the air. (Click to view larger version...)
...that offered spectacular scenes, both on the ground as in the air.
Enjoying the rare chance to build a provençal snowman: Hiroshi Matsumoto and Minxing Su. (Click to view larger version...)
Enjoying the rare chance to build a provençal snowman: Hiroshi Matsumoto and Minxing Su.
It happens once every 15 to 20 years. And when it does, it is chaos in Provence. It doesn't take much: 20 to 25 centimetres of snow, a temperature a couple of degrees below 0° C and in less than an hour, traffic comes to a standstill, hundreds of motorists find themselves trapped in their cars, trains stop on their tracks and the weaker parts of the power grid shut down. This is what happened last Wednesday, as it did in December 1973 and in January 1987. "It was just a basic conflict between a cold stream descending from Scandinavia and warm, stationary air above the Mediterranean," says Bertrand Laviec, from Météo-France Regional Centre in Aix. "Snowfalls were heavy, but no historical record has been broken. This type of event was quite frequent and even more spectacular in the 50's and 60's."

So why, to quote some of the headlines in the local newspapers, the "Chaos", the "White Mess", the "Panic" and the "Fiasco"? In normal conditions, traffic on the motorways leading in and out of Marseille is exceptionally dense, with more than 50 000 people commuting daily between Aix and the region's metropolis. On Wednesday, snow started falling when truck drivers were leaving the autoroutes' rest areas and commuters were starting their drive to work. The result was a monster gridlock that shouldn't have come as a surprise. Despite all efforts from municipal services, motorway authorities, fire brigades and police forces, it took more than 24 hours to bring the situation back to, almost, normal.

<< return to Newsline #64
Pour tous commentaires ou questions, adressez vous à webmaster@iter.org. © 2013, ITER Organization  |  Terms of use