Heart Attack Snow

The Scoop on Snow Shoveling Safety

It happens every winter in the Midwest ... snow falls, usually leaving piles of the stuff to clear from your sidewalks and driveway. Consider the following before you grab your shovel after a major snowfall.

The good news is that 15 minutes of snow shoveling counts as moderate physical activity according to the 1996 Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health. We all should aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity of some kind on most days of the week. Brisk walking or social dancing are other ways to fit in moderate physical activity during cold winter months.

The bad news is that researchers have reported an increase in the number of fatal heart attacks among snow shovelers after heavy snowfalls. This rise may be due to the sudden demand that shoveling places on an individual's heart. Snow shoveling may cause a quick increase in heart rate and blood pressure. One study determined that after only two minutes of shoveling, sedentary mens' heart rates rose to levels higher than those normally recommended during aerobic exercise.

Shoveling may be vigorous activity even for healthy college-aged students. A study performed by researchers at North Dakota State University determined that, based on heart rate, shoveling was a moderately intense activity for college-aged subjects most of the time but was vigorous activity during about one-third of their shoveling time of 14 minutes.

Shoveling can be made more difficult by the weather. Cold air makes it harder to work and breathe, which adds some extra strain on the body. There also is the risk for hypothermia, a decrease in body temperature, if one is not dressed correctly for the weather conditions.

Who should think twice about shoveling snow?

Those most at risk for a heart attack include:

• Anyone who has already had a heart attack.
• Individuals with a history of heart disease.
• Those with high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels.
• Smokers.
• Individuals leading a sedentary lifestyle.

Should you rush out and buy a snow blower?

Not necessarily. Not everyone who shovels snow is going to have a heart attack. Snow shoveling can be good exercise when performed correctly and with safety in mind.

Also consider back safety when shoveling snow. Even if you exercise regularly and are not at risk for heart disease, shoveling improperly could lead to a strained back. If you've been inactive for months and have certain risk factors, use some common sense before taking on the task of snow shoveling.

A Pile of Snow Shoveling Tips

Be heart healthy and back friendly while shoveling this winter with these tips:

• If you are inactive and have a history of heart trouble, talk to your doctor before you take on the task of shoveling snow.
• Avoid caffeine or nicotine before beginning. These are stimulants, which may increase your heart rate and cause your blood vessels to constrict. This places extra stress on the heart.
• Drink plenty of water. Dehydration is just as big an issue in cold winter months as it is in the summer.
• Dress in several layers so you can remove a layer as needed.
• Warm up your muscles before shoveling, by walking for a few minutes or marching in place. Stretch the muscles in your arms and legs, because warm muscles will work more efficiently and be less likely to be injured.
• Pick the right shovel for you. A smaller blade will require you to lift less snow, putting less strain on your body.
• Begin shoveling slowly to avoid placing a sudden demand on your heart. Pace yourself and take breaks as needed.
• Protect your back from injury by lifting correctly.
• Stand with your feet about hip width for balance and keep the shovel close to your body. Bend from the knees (not the back) and tighten your stomach muscles as you lift the snow. Avoid twisting movements. If you need to move the snow to one side reposition your feet to face the direction the snow will be going.
• Most importantly — listen to your body. Stop if you feel pain!

http://www.ext.nodak.edu/snow.htm

Winter Conditioning: Are You Ready for the Snow?

Snowmageddon Makes the List

"A good newspaper," Arthur Miller observed in 1961, "is a nation talking to itself."
Nearly 50 years later, Miller's missive still rings true -- though now that we're no longer constricted to a once-a-day paper, the conversation's moving fast enough for us to need a list to help remember what was worth talking about in the first place. That's where the Global Language Monitor Survey comes in handy. The Texas-based survey uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in the English-speaking world of more than 1.58 billion people.

Remember good old H1N1? That topped the list in 2009, along with Twitter and Obama. Now swine flu is but a distant memory.
Let's hope the same can be said for this year's winner. One "spillcam" a generation is just fine by me.

What other words made the cut in 2010?

Holding enough ice to raise sea levels by nearly 200 feet if it all melted, Antarctica is a major factor when it comes to climate change.

That's partly why NASA, yeah the space agency, also sponsors science here on Earth — and right now it's got several dozen scientists criss-crossing the western coast of the continent to measure sea ice and glaciers — the huge rivers of ice that hold back the two vast ice sheets covering Antarctica.

A DC-8 carrying seven instruments, and the researchers, has been making flights along Antarctica's west coast since Oct. 26 — and as weather conditions permit. Flying from a base in Punta Arenas, Chile, the mission hopes to have 11-12 flights completed before packing up on Sunday.

Our Weather Eye to the Sky

WALLOPS, Va. — It's an anonymous and secluded place from which to distribute satellite weather images watched by practically the whole world.

The Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station, located near Chincoteague Island, is a vital link in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's mission to provide accurate weather data to the nation.

Passed by countless motorists every day, virtually everyone sees the results of the work that goes on there, in the form of the satellite images used in television weather broadcasts.

summer in retrospect

how warm was this summer

Let's look at the surface temperatures in the summer of 2010, which justifiably received a lot of attention. Figure 1 shows maps of the June-July-August temperature anomaly (relative to 1951-1980) in the GISS temperature analysis (described in paper in press at Rev. Geophys., available at this link) for 2009 and 2010, as well as maps for December-January-February (Northern Hemisphere winter, Southern Hemisphere summer) for the past two years.

June-July-August 2010 was the 4th warmest in the 131 year GISS analysis, while 2009 was the 2nd warmest¹. 2010 was a bit cooler than 2009 mainly because a moderate El Nino in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during late 2009 and early 2010 has been replaced by a moderate La Nina. Also most of Antarctica was cool in winter 2010, while it was warm in 2009. Antarctic winter temperature anomalies are very noisy, fluctuating chaotically from year to year.

The maps make clear that perceptions of how hot it was depend on where you live. The two warmest anomalies on the planet this past summer were Eastern Europe and the Antarctic Peninsula. Not many people live on the Antarctic Peninsula and an anomaly of even several degrees in winter there is not a big deal. But the warm anomaly centered in Eastern Europe, which covered most of Europe and the Middle East, was noticed, to say the least. It was also quite warm in Japan, where the prior summer had been cooler than the 1951-1980 mean. The United States, which had been unusually cool in the summer of 2009, was warm this past summer, except the Pacific Northwest, which was cooler than the 1951-1980 climatology.

Indonesia’s Volcano Erupts Again

MAGUWOHARJO, Indonesia — A powerful overnight eruption of Mount Merapi created chaos for Indonesia’s disaster response effort on Friday after an explosion of hot gases and debris killed scores of people and sent more than 160,000 villagers fleeing to underprepared evacuation camps.

Heavy white ash covered the runways at the airport in nearby Yogyakarta, forcing it to close Friday, The Associated Press reported. It was not clear when it would reopen.

The latest, unexpected eruption prompted authorities to extend the evacuation radius around Mount Merapi to 20 kilometers, or 12.5 miles, from 15 kilometers. An earlier eruption the day before had caused it to be extended from an initial 10 kilometers.

Despite chaos as authorities abandoned previous havens, Mr. Nugroho said it was the right approach to keep evacuees so close to the erupting volcano.

With tens of thousands evacuating camps, and tens of thousands more abandoning villages, police, troops and aid workers struggled to deal with crowds at new collection points further away from the smoldering mountain.

Twin Cities Snowstorm Cuts Power, Triggers Car Accidents

Early Snow Stuns Twin Cities

This could go down as one of the most significant snowstorms to strike the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area before the Thanksgiving holiday in two decades. The impacts were far reaching; from power outages to car accidents to flight cancellations.


The impacts were felt outside of Minnesota, as well. Two deaths from a car accident in Wisconsin are being blamed on the snowstorm.

Roughly 8 to 12 inches of heavy, wet snow has fallen over the Twin Cities since the snow began late Friday night.According to the Star Tribune, Greg Spoden at the Minnesota State Climate Office stated that this will probably be the biggest pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm for the Twin Cities since 1991, the year of the Halloween monster.

A storm system, which originated in the central Plains, intensified on Friday and into Saturday morning as it moved into Iowa and Wisconsin.

Snowy street in Minneapolis (AP photo)

Snow fell in earnest during the mid-morning hours over the Twin Cities metro area, at times at the rate of 1 inch per hour.

With a temperature hovering around the freezing mark, the snow that fell had a very high water content. This translates as a heavy snow that results in backbreaking shoveling, not the light and powdery kind.

The snow began to accumulate on tree branches and power lines and weighed them down considerably. The weighing of the snow led to the snapping of hundreds if not thousands of tree branches citywide, and power lines crashed to the ground.