Wednesday - January 26, 2011

Let it snow, let it snow, let it … NO !!!

Here we go again. Another major snowstorm crawling across the Northeast today. Heavy snowfall all morning, all day, into the evening. Predictions of 6"-10" even for my dry corner of the state.

Wife’s office is closed, all the local schools are closed. This is the second time in a week. It’s either been seriously sub-freezing, or snowing, since ... before Christmas? Which seems ages and ages ago, even though we’re still in January.

Most towns in this part of the country, from DC up to northern Maine, are reporting more snow so far this season than they usually get all year long. I’m know I’m tired of it, that’s for sure.

Radio was saying last night that NJ has already used up it’s entire winter snow plowing budget and will have to take extra funds from other areas. We had a similar situation at our condo park last year, which wasn’t all that snowy. Everybody had to pay a few hundred extra to the Association in the Spring.

I’m having the thought that we’ve become too ... sensitive? ... to the snow. And too used to those warmer years we had where not much snow fell. My mother always tells me about the winter of 1960, when there was so much snow piled up that cars had to have tall flags on them so that other drivers could see them at intersections. And how it snowed every week. I certainly remember the winter of 77-78 when the cold came so early we were ice skating by early November. I don’t remember schools and businesses being constantly closed. Seems that people managed a little better in those days somehow.

Not that I’m suggesting that everyone should be out there risking their lives to get to school and work. But is there that much risk in just muddling through? I recall my first boss yelling at me on the phone to put on skis or get out the dogsled, whatever was necessary, just get to work dammit!  And I did. And the store was just about empty the whole day, but that’s beside the point. I got there, through half a foot of unplowed snow. Looking back, I’m kind of proud of that. Was that stupid? When I lived up in Binghamton NY, 4” of snow was just weather; we got about our business. The tri-state metro area seems to go belly up over the smallest amounts of the white stuff ... but consider the population density before reacting to that. I think about 15% of the national population lives in the Philly-NJ-NYC zone. This is the most densely peopled part of the nation, and there is only minor public transportation outside of the biggest cities. Come to think of it, even though this whole area has always been rather built up, there wasn’t this kind of population in 1960 or in 1978. So maybe this is the best approach?

There can’t be many snow days left for the school kids. If it keeps snowing like this all season, I guess they’ll be giving up their Spring Break and going to class until mid-July.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/26/2011 at 09:19 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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