Time Sensitive Snow Alert

Now... if you do not or have never lived in snow country, you may not see the humor in this.  Just a warning also, that I may be making fun of those of you who stay home when it sprinkles a wee bit from a passing dark cloud or if there is a lone snow flake in the air… or even the potential of one.  You know if I am taking about you.  No offense. I just find your behavior to be humorous and perhaps a bit wimpy.  Remember we Snow Belt NW Pennsylvanians take pride in our ability to survive. We know how to knit stuff to keep warm. We do things like lay in supplies and carry and stack wood. We know how to build fires and how to use all different kinds of shovels. We have a bunch of different words to describe all different kinds of snow. We know people with generators. We live in Snow Country.

Today, the day before Halloween, when it is drizzly, damp to wet, in the low forties and I was moving around outside with no coat for a while thinking nothing of it, I received a screen shot of my son’s phone.  He lives a bit west of Indianapolis in a lovely town called Danville, Indiana. It's the County Seat of  Hendrick's County. So nice there! They don’t really know there about winter though -- not the way we do. I mean their annual snowfall averages around 20 inches and they get a lot of sun there... unlike here where we average around 150 inches and have been know to get half that much in one single storm. Further , we are not known for sunny days.  We notice them when we do get them. We do not take them for granted.  Anyway - The following is a direct quote of his screen shot:

TIME SENSITIVE

Snow Alert

Danville: A brief snow shower will begin around Mon, Oct 30 9:59 EDT.

Really – a time sensitive weather warning about a “brief snow shower”?  Of course it was issued by The Weather Channel – which is based in Atlanta, Georgia.  What do they in Atlanta know about snow really? I once witnessed them freaking out about potential for 6 inches of the white stuff in Boston.  We had six feet in 24-36 hours at that same time and not even a mere mention of us.  Erie ran out of lake to push it into and didn’t totally dig out until the following Spring. Seriously -- I have great friends who didn't celebrate Christmas until April that year.

Anyway – not sure how my son was reacting to this “alert”. I would like to think that he was making fun of it, but I didn't know how to interpret his accompanying emoji.  He has lived in Indiana for a long time now and maybe now has wimped out from lack of exposure to a real winter. I'm not sure he even has a real winter coat now. But -- I mean he was the kid who used to dig snow tunnels all day long, downhill ski and more than once went trick or treating in a foot or more of snow – who had to plan his costumes every single year to include warm outerwear.  He was a child of snow country, a boy who once drove from here to Stowe, Vermont in a blizzard to ski. Is it possible that he may have become one who even notices a brief snow shower? I find it amusing. I mean he lived in Rutland, Vermont and went to school in New England. He knows what snow is. BTW – I told him I was going to write about his screen shot.  He laughed.  He finds me amusing.  I am thankful for that and for him.  I find him amusing as well.  It’s a mutual thing. Actually I am blessed with an entire family of funny people.  

Note -- The forecast here today is for the possibility of snow for the next 4 days.  I will believe it when I see it. I can guarantee you that The Weather Channel will not be sending out alerts  to us... ever.  

Thoughts on Winter...

 

Inhabitants of Northwest Pennsylvania tend to think of winter as a normal part of it all.  We rarely shut down anything for snow- although ice is at times a bit of an issue. Only on rare occasions would we allow either to interfere with our plans. We move about our lives thankful that we do not have to deal with hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes or pineapple cyclones, but, I confess, we do snort laugh when TV weather people report 6 inches of the white stuff as paralyzing. We sympathize but ... that is a just past a mere dusting here. Actually we have a lot of different words to describe snow - probably because there is usually so much so often. We know it well. We make jokes about it and plod on.

When talking about snow, it is, in fairness, important to consider point of view. The headquarters for the National Weather Service is in Silver Springs, Maryland. The average snowfall there is about a foot spread out over an entire winter season. The headquarters for The Weather Channel is in Atlanta, Georgia. They had snow there on January 23, 1940. Both the NWS and the WC tend to foam and twitch at the mere thought of a couple of inches of snow and try to get people all wound up about it. Seriously what do they know about snow? They probably close schools in either of those places if there is one single snow flake in the air that melts before it hits the ground.  We laugh at them too … as they know basically nothing about "real" snow.  Talk to people in places like Buffalo, NY if you want to lean about real snow. Must mention at this point that my small town at times has the highest annual snowfall in the Commonwealth of PA – one year it was 115” above the national average.  Many years there is much more snow than that. Erie, Pa (about 35 miles away) had five feet in 36 hours a couple of years ago, and we still out snowed them that year. That was the year when Erie ran out of places to put the snow and people found themselves still digging out in April.  Seriously… (Well – that might be a slight exaggeration….)

Anyway -- we in Northwest Pennsylvania understand that not everyone is as used to dealing with snow as we are and – they don’t do it as well – lack of practice and proper equipment. We forget that there are people who do not know that studded snow tires or chains, long underwear, or boots with cleats even exist. I suppose we take a bit of pride in our knowledge of the ways of snow country and in the digging out of the "big coats" and trudging on. We always feel sorry for people who get dumped on who are not set up for it. Then again -- sometimes we make fun of people -- especially of snow birds… even though we know they do better in milder climes and are basically happy for them. (It’s okay to be wimpy. I get sick of mittens and boots too. By the way -- snow birds are people who escape the snow belt and head south for the warmth of sunshine ... aka wimps. I love them anyway.) My simple truth is that I hate hot weather.  I can always get warmer, but cannot always find a way to get cooler. Plus – I detest light weight clothes.  I am at my best when I layer and… I love thick socks. I have a lot of them. I pad around in them on a daily basis. I sometimes sleep in them on cold nights.  I buy boots in a bigger size so that my feet will slip in no matter how thick my socks are.  It’s that simple really. I am a cold weather person. That is one reason why I live here on purpose.  That and I like the people here -- also winter people for the most part, and the rest have most admirable gumption.

Even though it has been feebly snowing for a few days now as I write this, winter doesn’t really seem to have settled in yet. It is past due. We have had a couple of good storms with a few feet of snow each, but nothing is lasting very long.  It is like a broken promise really.  Winter is taking its time – sort of galumphing in and tripping along the way. We haven’t even had more than a few hours of  the blinding, yet beautiful winter whiteness of light reflecting off the snow. My Grandson has only been snowboarding maybe a dozen times, and it’s already the 2^nd week of January.  We feel cheated somehow in a rather twisted way and ... we keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. We live off the Great lakes -- in the Snow Belt.  We are ready and waiting.

The days are already getting longer.  It stays daylight now until around 5 PM and is inching toward later. Kids are now waiting for early morning school buses only about 15 - 30 minutes before the sun is actually up. My Granddaughter is just now beginning to walk to school in daylight. Soon we will be anticipating those aching yellow-greens of spring. Now those are greens -- so vivid that they hurt your eyes.  They shimmer.  Not sure if you have to live here to know what I mean, or perhaps we just appreciate it more after months of white, gray, black and the muddy brown of in betweens.  Perhaps it takes a while for our eyes to adjust to color. We sometimes go days without it. We take photographs and they look like they were taken in black and white mode ... but were not. Dreary always begins with a capital D here.

Ah, snow country in Northwest Pennsylvania.  Did I tell you that it is also cold and windy here?  We are on a first name basis with the wild chill factor if that tells you anything, and we sometimes have the kind of winds that make windows rattle in a most impressive way. I wish I owned stock in ChapStick. NWPA Winter...  It's not for the faint of heart. Bring it on. Let the fun begin.

If not now, when? It's a win win.

"If not now, when?" seems to be one of the advertising catch phrases of a new Weight Watchers' campaign. I like it.  Plus -- I think it can apply to any number of aspects of a person's life -- not just to getting control of a weight issue.  A few months ago I started to develop a bit of an exercise regimen after a period of relative inactivity. I was to the point of feeling like a real slug and beginning not to care that my feet seemed to be stuck in "slugdom". I distinctly remember telling a very good friend that it was time for me to get moving or just forget it altogether -- sort of a now or never thing. ("If not now, when?") I was tired of thinking about it.  "Just Do It", "No pain;no gain" and all of that sort of thing were running through my mind on an all too regular basis.  It was time to move, to develop a more active life style.  I knew it then as I do now.  As much as I love to snuggle under a good afghan while reading or watching television, it was time to don a good pair of sneakers and get some fresh air. 

Fortunately for me Northwest Pennsylvania experienced a relatively easy beginning to winter -- lasting until the second week of January. Around here winter begins in October, so I figure we are way ahead of the game. Although this week has been wintry, we have had under a half a dozen big snow falls in lieu of the normal six feet of snow by now.  I have made it a personal goal to be outside every single day since October that it hasn't been icy. (The potential to fall and not be able to get up is no longer a joke in my "group".) I have walked in mist, in rain, and even in sleet at times. It feels good.  Many times I haven't even had to wear a winter coat -- just multiple layers of heat retaining fabric. (Remember when all we had were rain and snow absorbing wool coats and mittens that would freeze solid?) Anyway -- I am in love with El Nino. Typical of us who live in snow country, we always are aware of the other side of the coin -- La Nina, but I will think about that later.  For now, with the exception of the occasional cold snap and foot of snow/hour,  I am simply enjoying the higher than normal temperatures and the lesser than normal amounts of snow. 

Just out of curiosity, I researched this phenomenon on the NOAA and The Weather Channel websites, checked out a relevant article by the "Capital Weather Gang" that appeared in The Washington Post, and of course -- closely perused my favorite and most reliable sources -- the two versions of the Farmers' Almanac.  By they way -- they all agree that with the exception of an unexpected "precipitation anomaly" (freak storm), it is going to be a really light winter for those of us here in Northwest PA.  Nice...  pleasant deviation from the normal. I have been witness to dandelions in bloom and worms on the pavement -- in December.... I also know that El Nino has negative effects on many areas as well.  I am seriously sorry for that, but you know what?  It's nice to have a break from hard winters around here, and since I cannot control the weather, I am taking advantage of that break. 

So.... Sounds to me like now is the perfect time to get moving...a window of opportunity that doesn't come very often around here. If I am wrong?  I will be in better shape to shovel.  It's a win win.  

FYI -- the official first day of Spring is March 20th -- just three days after St. Patrick's Day.  Just mentioning....  Is it possible that we will miss our Northwest Pennsylvania snow country St. Patrick's Day Storm this year?  I could cope if we do.  You?