During next summer's heat, the snowstorm of 2008 will be just a vague memory for folks who battled so hard with it in southern China last week.

But there's an opportunity here waiting for someone to take advantage of.
While it's true that maybe such snow will not come for another 50 years, being ready for the unexpected is good business.

Rigging a snowplow to the front of a Changfeng or Jiangling pickup can be just what's needed for getting the local marketplace back up and running.
Of course the Zhuhai-Beijing expressway calls for much bigger rigs but
it takes both the big and the small to get the job done.

The torturous wear on plow-equipped vehicles is a great opportunity for the kind of R&D, that can enhance transmission, cooling system and lubrication durability, to name but a few.

Anyway this has been a great wake up call for the folks south of the Yangzi River. And it also gives them an appreciation of what the folks up in Heilongjiang and Jilin go through almost every year.

For those who do make it home for the holidays this year, there will be lots of experiences to talk about over the Spring Festival holiday meal. 春节快乐

At the rate we're placing greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere- these seamingly rare weather anomalies are going to be more and more prevelant until we curb our fossil fuel burning. Floods, fires, tornadoes and freak snowstorms (like in the Middle East) are quickly becoming the norm- rather than the exception. Likewise, automobile designs must now be able to handle a variety of conditions well. In my mind, this points towards making (part-time/for at least emergency use) 4wd a standard feature. A low center of gravity with an aerodynamic (not a tall SUV) design would likewise cut down on wind shear -and- if the vehicle could float for short (emergency only) periods of time, so much the better. Of course my solar electric coupe is designed to do all of these things well for the current price of mid- sized gasoline powered sedans.