My mom freaks out and calls me or sends me an email whenever the Scary News tells her there's going to be snow in the Sierra Nevada. She did the same thing when I lived in Vermont, where snow is so normal it's almost boring. I don't pay attention to Scary News so I'm not sure what they're saying, but I do know that Fear Sells.
Speaking of yellow snow, I do have some here, but I'm like Cousin: I'm not going to shovel that stuff!
I've seen red/yellow/green weather status in Finland, but we don't have that color system in the U.S.
We do, however, have the "watch" and "warning" statuses (preceded by the name of the weather phenomenon that's posing a threat)—which are decently close equivalents of the yellow and red, but we primarily use them for potential natural disasters, not just extreme weather. For example, places in the approximate vicinity but not the projected direct path of a tornado fall under "tornado watch"; places directly in the tornado's projected path fall under "tornado warning"—or possibly under evacuation orders, if the risk to life is severe enough.
For just extreme weather (not natural disasters like tornadoes and floods), our weather service issues an "Alert", "Advisory" or "Warning"—I think the name might vary by jurisdiction. e.g., if the combination of heat and humidity gets bad enough then there could be an Extreme Heat Alert/Advisory/Warning. As far as I know, these don't have different tiers like the European yellow and red levels.
Rat's Human is in Latvia, where we now have four tiers: green (lack of warning), yellow (pretty much every day, especially in winter), orange, red, and an-ugly-color-light-magenta-or-something-like-that. I semi-seriously want that last tier to happen at last, to see how they struggle naming that color. :D
Color names are interesting in general, just because the boundaries between supposedly "different" colors vary from one language to another. What we call "hot pink" in English, for instance, the Chinese call "rose red". We think "sky blue" and "royal blue" are both shades of "blue", but Italians consider them two completely different colors (celeste, azzurro). Etc etc.
So, the first question is whether it'd be called a shade of red, or a shade of purple, or... something else lol
I know RGB colors and hex values (actually well enough to know what that looks like without even having to search it). That's the "hot pink" that the Chinese consider to be a shade of red. It's such a pretty color💖
I think I'm counting the base color as a tier mostly because I'm thinking of the DEFCON nuclear threat/readiness scale used by the U.S. military, where DEFCON 5 (peacetime with no nuclear threat) is the "baseline" level but is still a number on the scale. (DEFCON 1 is nuclear war.)
In the Puget Sound region of Washington State, when the TV news weather pimps allude to the possibility of snow…universal dread, not unlike the ominous feelings generated by the old Emergency Broadcasting System alert tones.
Where I live in the US - Long Island, NY - we're probably going to experience that last ugly-colored tier Sunday night through Monday (blizzard with about 20 inches accumulation expected), even though we don't use a color system here. Think it should just be called spoiled cheese color tier and be done.
We’re used to weather being notoriously unstable. Wet snow can occur at any time from September to April, but it’s never guaranteed to stay for long. Once in ~five years or so we get a “normal” winter (like this one), and people start acting as if the world was ending.
My mom freaks out and calls me or sends me an email whenever the Scary News tells her there's going to be snow in the Sierra Nevada. She did the same thing when I lived in Vermont, where snow is so normal it's almost boring. I don't pay attention to Scary News so I'm not sure what they're saying, but I do know that Fear Sells.
Speaking of yellow snow, I do have some here, but I'm like Cousin: I'm not going to shovel that stuff!
They merely want us to FREAK OUT accordingly.
I've seen red/yellow/green weather status in Finland, but we don't have that color system in the U.S.
We do, however, have the "watch" and "warning" statuses (preceded by the name of the weather phenomenon that's posing a threat)—which are decently close equivalents of the yellow and red, but we primarily use them for potential natural disasters, not just extreme weather. For example, places in the approximate vicinity but not the projected direct path of a tornado fall under "tornado watch"; places directly in the tornado's projected path fall under "tornado warning"—or possibly under evacuation orders, if the risk to life is severe enough.
For just extreme weather (not natural disasters like tornadoes and floods), our weather service issues an "Alert", "Advisory" or "Warning"—I think the name might vary by jurisdiction. e.g., if the combination of heat and humidity gets bad enough then there could be an Extreme Heat Alert/Advisory/Warning. As far as I know, these don't have different tiers like the European yellow and red levels.
Rat's Human is in Latvia, where we now have four tiers: green (lack of warning), yellow (pretty much every day, especially in winter), orange, red, and an-ugly-color-light-magenta-or-something-like-that. I semi-seriously want that last tier to happen at last, to see how they struggle naming that color. :D
BTW is there a website anywhere listing these colors, including the new one? Any language.
I started looking into it, and it appears the site I’ve been using (https://www.meteounradars.lv/bridinajumi-par-negaisu/riga/6508658?layer=SL&date=2026-02-21) has invented its own tiers; it also includes road conditions, which leads to it having way more warnings than the government agency (https://warnings.meteo.lv/), which only uses three tiers; and then there’s an European warning network (https://www.meteoalarm.org/en/live/) which carries some warnings others don’t.
tl;dr: there’s quite some competition in the fearmongering field, and I’m now confused
So five tiers? Or the green one doesn't count?
Color names are interesting in general, just because the boundaries between supposedly "different" colors vary from one language to another. What we call "hot pink" in English, for instance, the Chinese call "rose red". We think "sky blue" and "royal blue" are both shades of "blue", but Italians consider them two completely different colors (celeste, azzurro). Etc etc.
So, the first question is whether it'd be called a shade of red, or a shade of purple, or... something else lol
the green one doesn’t count, it’s just the base color for the map.
the color in question is #FF29FF (ask any search engine). I think “rabid fuchsia” might be an appropriate name for it.
I know RGB colors and hex values (actually well enough to know what that looks like without even having to search it). That's the "hot pink" that the Chinese consider to be a shade of red. It's such a pretty color💖
I think I'm counting the base color as a tier mostly because I'm thinking of the DEFCON nuclear threat/readiness scale used by the U.S. military, where DEFCON 5 (peacetime with no nuclear threat) is the "baseline" level but is still a number on the scale. (DEFCON 1 is nuclear war.)
Now I'm picturing an invasion of Little-Shop-of-Horrors style fuchsias, rabidly champing their pendulous tubular flowers.
https://substack.com/@tardigrade1/note/c-217810087?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2ya3v
In Texas we only have drought/ water restrictions. In case of snow, just stay home. Driving on frozen water is suicidal.
Four inches of snow is enough for a yellow warning and no school.
In the Puget Sound region of Washington State, when the TV news weather pimps allude to the possibility of snow…universal dread, not unlike the ominous feelings generated by the old Emergency Broadcasting System alert tones.
The dread of snow goes well with your last name 😅
Where I live in the US - Long Island, NY - we're probably going to experience that last ugly-colored tier Sunday night through Monday (blizzard with about 20 inches accumulation expected), even though we don't use a color system here. Think it should just be called spoiled cheese color tier and be done.
It all depends what you're used to. In Jackson Hole, 4 feet wouldn't slow us down.
I was visiting Santa Barbara once when it actually got cold enough to have a little morning frost on the rooftops. People stayed home from work.
We’re used to weather being notoriously unstable. Wet snow can occur at any time from September to April, but it’s never guaranteed to stay for long. Once in ~five years or so we get a “normal” winter (like this one), and people start acting as if the world was ending.
Not gonna lie... I thought the same thing Cousin did 😁
Like everything else.