Tuesday, February 13, 2007

A Nor'easter on the Way?

The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning and wind chill advisories for today and tomorrow.

Winter Storm Warning

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAY ME
355 AM EST TUE FEB 13 2007

...A MAJOR WINTER STORM WILL BRING HEAVY SNOW TO THE REGION LATE
TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

...BITTERLY COLD WIND CHILLS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THIS MORNING...

.THE COMBINATION OF WINDS AND COLD TEMPERATURES WILL CREATE WIND
CHILLS OF 10 BELOW TO 30 BELOW ZERO ACROSS THE REGION THIS
MORNING.

MEANWHILE...LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE UP THE EAST COAST SPREADING
HEAVY SNOW INTO THE REGION LATE TONIGHT AND EARLY WEDNESDAY.

The actual forecast is calling for 4-8 inches of snow in the mid-coast, possibly with a little freezing rain or sleet mixed in, yummy!

Still the whole panic-riddled forecasting biz leaves me shaking my head. Inciting panic over 4-8 inches of snow seems a bit extreme. I can clearly remember several big storms of my youth (now referred to as the blizzard of '78, etc.) that did not incite near rioting at the grocery store despite the 14+ inches of snow that fell. I think the problem is not the snow, but us.

I miss the old days, before SUVs, when we were all in the same boat, so to speak, wipers straining to clear the windshield as we crept along the road at 35 mph. Now I drive a sedate 45 mph --as required by law on the Maine turnpike, I might add-- and the crazy fool in the big SUV puts my life at risk screaming by at 65+ mph while yakking on the cell phone. These days, I stay home, I'm afraid of the other drivers. A little snow don't scare me, but the fools with 4-wheel drive, well, they leave me shaking in my pac boots. In my driveway at home.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I 100% agree! The weather casters do the same thing here, and you know it's just for ratings. It's supposed to get below 0 again tonight (it warmed up the last few nights) and they're making a huge deal about it. We just came off 10 days where the lows were -5 to -20, so I think we're prepared to handle tonight.

And drivers in MN are just as bad as what you describe. I absolutely hate SUV drivers, who should know that just because they can go on snowy roads doesn't mean they can stop.

Carol Michel said...

The weather forecasters got a little crazy here with our latest storm warning... unfortunately, turns out they were right. We have gotten quite a winter storm. Lots of snow, sleet, wind, just north of my is an official Blizzard. Where is spring?!

Steve said...

Living here in the PDRM, where you don't need a snowstorm to put your life at risk on the highways of the state, we ended up with about 13" of a very granular snow, very hard to shovel, even more so when you realize it's the @#$%&!! landlord's responsibility as well. I just stayed in the whole day, rather than risk exposing myself to the Tijuana 500 that would be Lawrence. First real storm here this winter.

Contented myself by thinking of August and lots and LOTS of ripe tomatoes.