I bet television weather people are giving a huge sigh of relief and muttering, “Thank goodness this winter is over.”
The mild temps and lack of snow must have driven them crazy. Hardly a blizzard existed, and they had to search high and low to add spice and zip to their weather reports.
At one point, a winter weather advisory for four inches of snow was issued. Really? When did four inches of snow make for a “winter weather advisory?” Four inches?
At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all old-timer who remembers walking two miles to a one-room country school (actually, I did just that but only in good weather. Otherwise Daddy gave me a ride), I’d like to give them a bit of advice.
They don’t need to make weather a drama. We Northlanders are quite happy with plain old forecasts. We like them accurate, but we know that isn’t always possible.
We accept winter extremes and take the gales of Lake Superior in stride. We hunker. We dig in. We grit our teeth and bear it. So this year when T.V. weather people got overly excited about a scrim of snow covering the pavement or an icicle-shredding wind howling in over Lake Superior, we didn’t know what to make of it.
We understand that some winters are warmer than others and there’s nothing weather forecasters can do about it. In fact, the charts and graphs they showed us demonstrating the history and scope of this winter were very nice, but we already knew what they were telling us.
I was happy when two feet of snow fell the first week of March. It gave the forecasters a lot of talking points. I was sorry to see unlucky or newly hired weather people standing outside in freezing temps, hair flying in high winds with microphone in hand, but they got their drama.
There was also the opposite situation—one Duluth weather forecaster standing outside, wearing goggles because a few snowflakes were falling.
Mostly Northlanders don’t make big scenes over cold and snow. We quietly slip on neckups, heavy winter jackets, sturdy boots and get on with the day.
We don’t need to be told to dress warm if the temps are predicted to plunge below zero. We get it. We know enough to bring in our pets during cold spells, and we can actually figure out by ourselves to swathe our children in jackets, hats and mittens.
Admittedly, we like the excitement of a big blizzard about to dump an avalanche of snow. As we check out groceries or fill up gas tanks, we ask each other, “Is the storm really coming?” We search out the shovels, make sure the snow blowers are ready to roar, check our hot chocolate supply and take winter in stride.
As to the recent recordbreaking early spring and warm temperatures? That’s another story that has all of us surprised, but nobody is complaining.
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