The Parable of the Snow Safety Inspector

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher when BART workers went on strike, did Murphy’s Law dictate an accident to a BART worker?”

Josh spoke thus:

A snow safety inspector was examining a wall of snow.

“This is lighter snow than I’d expected,” the snow safety inspector said over the snow safety inspector’s radio, “This time of year, with these conditions, you expect heavier snow.”

The snow safety inspector waited for a reply from the snow safety inspector’s radio.  There was no reply from the snow safety inspector’s radio.

“It’s the moisture content that does it,” the snow safety inspector said into the snow safety inspector’s radio, “This time of year, you expect that there will be more moisture in the snow.  The snow melts and then refreezes, you see.  When the snow melts and refreezes, it becomes denser.  The water content is higher.”

The snow safety inspector again waited for a reply from the snow safety inspector’s radio.  There was no reply from the snow safety inspector’s radio.

“Also, the snow that originally falls has a higher moisture content,” the snow safety inspector said, “When the air is warmer, it contains more moisture.  Therefore the snow that forms in that air contains more moisture.  The flakes are bigger, in simple terms.  Just like with melted snow, that means there is more ice per cubic millimeter.  There is less air.  That means it’s less dense.  And what’s there instead of air is water.”

The snow safety inspector expected a reply to this statement over the snow safety inspector’s radio.  There was no reply.

“Denser snow is obviously heavier snow, by definition,” the snow safety inspector said, “Water is heavier than air.  The more water, the heavier the snow.  So this time of year, with more moisture in the air, and with the constant melting and refreezing of the snow--in effect into just ice--you would expect heavy snow.  What I see in front of me is not heavy snow.  It’s light snow.  It’s powder, almost.  If I were skiing, I would love this snow.

The snow safety inspector waited for laughter over the snow safety inspector’s radio.  There was no laughter over the snow safety inspector’s radio.  There was no reply over the snow safety inspector’s radio.  

There was no reply over the snow safety inspector’s radio because there was no one at the other end of the snow safety inspector’s radio’s transmission.  The person who would have been at the other end of the snow safety inspector’s radio transmission was on strike.

In fact, the snow safety inspector was on strike.  The whole snow safety inspection department was on strike.

This was why nobody had blasted any potential avalanches from the slopes of the mountains above the road the snow safety inspector was driving along when the avalanche fell on the road the snow safety inspector was driving along and buried the snow safety inspector’s car in snow.

“Hello?” the snow safety inspector called over the snow safety inspector’s radio, “A little help here?  It’s not dense snow, it should be easy to move.”

There was no reply over the snow safety inspector’s radio.