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Seattle in the Snow

Seattle snow (From The Oatmeal.)

It’s widely understood that Seattle needs a better way to measure snowfall. However, what’s lacking is a solid proposal for how to measure snowfall around here. And so I have a proposal.

We should create a new unit of measurement: The Nickels. Named after Greg Nickels, who lost the mayorship of Seattle because he couldn’t manage the snow.

Now, there’s a couple of ways we could define the Nickels. It could be:

  • The amount of snow needed to cost a Mayor 10 points of approval rating
  • The amount of snow needed to cause a bus to slide down Olive way and teeter over the highway
  • 2 millimeters
  • Enough snow to reduce the coefficient of city road friction by 1%.

I’m not sure any of these are really right, so please suggest other ways we could define a Nickels in the comments.

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