Friday Snow Special

Last Friday in the D, we got snow, around 5 inches depending on exactly where you were in the region. Today for the second straight Friday, the forecast calls for snow again, anywhere from 4 to 8 inches.

The winter has been mild so far. I suppose it only figures that we couldn't get away with too little snow. Maybe winter is saying, "Michigan, hold my Vernors."

But another thought hit me: are our winters becoming back loaded, so to speak? Growing up, I seem to recall that by about mid November we would see our first significant snow. By March, we'd be happily sliding into spring. Yet the last several years it feels as though Novembers and even Decembers have been relatively warm. Cold and snow have been holding on well into March and April. A couple of years ago, not once but twice, I had snow flurries dancing around me on my morning walks. In May.

Is that just me? Or is there something to that theory? Are winters skewed from what they once were?

A Snowball's Chance

First of all, credit where it's due. The weather forecasters for Detroit and environs were quite right that temperatures were going fall fast, and to dangerous levels of cold. They appear to be correct about the high winds making it feel colder that it is. A tip of the hat is proper. Yet we will get nowhere near the amount of snow that was being predicted as recently as, oh, twelve hours before I hammered this missive out. Christmas Snowmageddon 2022 will not happen. 

I'm not saying that conditions aren't serious. I'm not saying that we shouldn't take rational precautions. But I am saying the whole thing is just like COVID: 'we're all gonna die if we don't isolate at home' seems to be the basic, go-to response of government experts.

I mean, who ultimately drives weather forecasts? The National Weather Service. A government agency. Who drove the COVID scare? The National Institutes of Health. A government agency. Who needs to justify their jobs to keep them? Government bureaucrats. How do they keep their jobs? By instilling fear in the citizenry, for one thing.

They're going to succeed in the exact opposite of the best response if they're not careful. People not unlike me will see it as crying wolf, and won't believe them when an actual predatory animal nears until it really is too late.

And then Marty realized

I don't know about you but we had one hell of a snow squall in Detroit at about 6:45 this morning. Dark grey skies were overhead. Big, heavy, flat snowflakes were driven nearly sideways by a mighty wind. It was impressive. I stood in the open doorway of my Shop staring into it with awe.

Then I remembered that I was standing in the open doorway of my Shop. The snowflakes were in all-out attack mode, pelting me in the face. They stung too. I closed the door and went back to the work I had went in early to cover.