Bostonians jump for joy over snowy winter. Sort of.
Amid the hullabaloo over the end of the most important dog show in the nation, snow-weary people in Boston have struck back with the latest human trick: jumping from several floors up into massive snowdrifts and then safely walking away.
In Boston, where more than 8 feet of snow have already fallen this season and spring is officially a month or so away, people are finding a way of coping with the mountains – seriously, mountains – of snow that have piled up.
In moves reminiscent of the Ice Bucket Challenge, where people doused themselves with frigid water for charity, many Bostonians have taken to tossing themselves off buildings, out windows and off ledges into the snow banks that are more than 10 feet tall. This time, charity is out in the cold. Here's one example and there's many more where this came from:
The filmed images, which have gone viral on Twitter, show people, some wearing the minimum to avoid being banned in Boston, then jumping up out of the snowbanks to reassure everyone that they have survived.
The trend began last month when people would make small jumps into snowbanks or perform the usual snow angel boogie, lying in the snow and wriggling like mad. But the trend has picked up, er, steam, as the storms have come through on an almost weekly schedule.
Not everyone is thrilled about the new outdoor sport, however.
“This isn't Loon Mountain, this is the city of Boston, where we're trying to remove snow off of the street and it becomes very dangerous,†Mayor Marty Walsh warned the city at a news conference on Tuesday. Walsh was most likely referring to a snow resort area in New Hampshire and not a state of mind.
“And the last thing we want to do is respond to an emergency call where somebody jumped out of the window because they thought it was a funny thing to do,†Walsh insisted, warning his constituents to think before taking the leap.
Meanwhile forecasters are predicting more snow starting Wednesday and lasting through Thursday, and another sprinkling of several inches next week.
Including last week's storm, Boston has received 95.7 inches of snow for the winter of 2014-15 and is within 11.9 inches of setting a record for the snowiest winter, according to weather officials. The record of 107.6 inches was set in 1995-96.
In much of the South, a storm that this week dumped a foot of snow in some places was ending, bringing low temperatures, refreezing the snow and ice and making the roads hazardous. Cold is expected to continue for the next several days.
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