Snowstorm reveals startling conclusions
It finally happened! After much anticipation, the weather forecasters (meteorologists or soothsayers) finally got a forecast right.
Starting Friday all weather reports urged everyone to "get ready for a major winter storm." Forecasters predicted it would begin snowing Saturday evening and continue through the day Sunday.
Call me cynical, but I didn't believe them. If anything, I thought we might have a few snow flurries sometime Sunday. That's usually what happens — the weather forecasters call for "major snow" and we get two snowflakes. They say "a few flurries" and we get 10 inches.
I'm a firm believer that if it must be cold, it might as well be snowing, but I refused to get my hopes up. Weather forecasts are rarely correct. (Have I mentioned that?) Well, I just couldn't help myself. The more I heard those weather people talk about their Super Duper Doppler Radars and Futurecast Storm Trackers the more excited I became.
By Saturday I was ready for that "major winter storm." Those words must trigger some hunter-gatherer gene that causes people to go to the store and stock up on everything they may or may not need between now and July. That's probably a good practice for those living in the country. For those of us in town however, it really is not necessary to go to the store and buy a pallet of toilet paper, six gallons of milk, and a drum of ketchup to get through a weekend storm.
All day Saturday, like a kid waiting for Christmas morning, I kept an eye on the weather, waiting eagerly for the first snowflake. By bedtime we were still awaiting that first fluffy flake and I was disgruntled with those fortune tellers and their crystal balls or malfunctioning snow globes called meteorologists.
Sunday morning brought rain. I was beginning to think area weather forecasters were getting their information from the alarmists on The Weather Channel.
A weekend spent watching The Weather Channel sheds a whole new light on job appreciation. Those people on TWC don't seem to have much enthusiasm for the weather. Perhaps they've figured out they're in a dead-end job and probably won't be the next Diane Sawyer or Tom Brokaw. Whatever the reason for their lack of passion about their career choices, it would have been nice if they had taken some geography lessons prior to explaining a nationwide weather forecast.
Forecasters on TWC seem to think there is a big black hole west of Pittsburgh, Pa., and east of say, Las Vegas, Nev. According to them absolutely nothing happens in the central part of the United States. Apparently they've been "educated" about population as well, and believe there are about a dozen people living in this "black hole" in the middle of the nation. Since the population is so sparse, their reasoning continues, the 12 people living there probably don't have cable so why bother giving a forecast?
After reaching these startling conclusions I went back to watching the local forecast and waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting for the snow. By the time it finally started Sunday afternoon, the anticipation had worn me out and I was napping. When I woke up and saw the snow was finally falling, I reached a few more startling conclusions — I was tired of staying home, we had forgotten to rent movies when we stocked up on milk and ketchup, and I had no idea where we were going to store a pallet of toilet paper.
But that was OK, it was Super Bowl Sunday and I'd heard there was supposed to be a spectacular half-time show.
— DONNA BERNHARDT
