Snow! Maybe...
One of the local TV channels is forecasting snow for us this week. For those of you farther north, snow isn't a big deal. It's more like a daily occurrence in the winter. Here in the south, snow is something we get from time to time to freak people out. Seriously.
A few years back, I guess it was in the winter of 99/00, we got several inches of snow. It started in the afternoon and continued into the evening. I was at work at the time, in retail. We stayed open almost until our normal closing time (21:00). I headed home then. At that point in my life, my mode of transportation was a Honda CRX. Not a really big car -- 2 doors, sat pretty low to the ground. I dug my car out of the snow in the parking lot, and off I went. Driving in the snow itself really isn't that bad. The problem here are the other drivers. Get this: that afternoon when it had started snowing, traffic on the interstate backed up from people getting all freaked out. I can hear the conversations in the cars, "Oh mah GAWD, lookit! It's snowin'! We gotta get outta this car or we're gonna die!" So they abandoned their cars wherever they happened to be on the interstate. Fast lane, center lane, wherever. Except the shoulder. Heaven forbid that they actually take the time to move the vehicle to a SAFE place. So then you have people like me, driving home down the same interstate in the dark, trying to determine if that snowy mass that I'm approaching is another car. I was changing lanes constantly to dodge all these cars that people abandoned. Come on, people. It's not that scary. I made it home in my little car even with all the interstate maneuvering.
The other thing I don't get about Southerners and snow is the connection between the forecast of snow and the immediate trip to the grocery store to stock up on anything you could possibly need for the next 2 years. If I see that it's supposed to snow for days with an accumulation of a couple of feet and the weather's not going to get above freezing for a couple of weeks, then I might go to the grocery store to make sure I've got the basics. Not the people around here. Mention the word "SNOW" in a TV forecast and the frenzy begins. Doesn't matter that it's A) probably not going to stick because of how warm it's been before the snow began, B) probably not going to last even if it does stick because of how warm it's going to be the day after it snows, C) only forecast to snow 1/2". People will go to the store and come back with a grocery cart full, even though they may have already done their regular shopping only a few days earlier. They've got to make sure they have enough bread, milk, and whatever else to last them for the next few weeks. You never know, we might get snowed in for a while. The only reason anyone would get snowed in here is from being too scared to drive in the snow, which relates back to my first point. Idiots.
Maybe it's because my mom is from Minnesota and she's accustomed to all kinds of wintry mayhem, but I don't remember us ever succumbing to the Southern snow panic. The only time I ever remember really being snowed in was when I was in elementary school and we got about a foot of snow. We lived in the country (my mom still does) and there weren't any snow plows that serviced our road.
Anyway, since I have all that out of my system, it's time to sound the alarms! We have snow in the forecast. According to KATV, Wednesday's high is 38 with a low of 18 and an 80% chance of snow. Thursday's high is 25, low 12, 30% chance of evening snow. Friday's high is 31, low 15 with a 30% chance of morning snow. I checked this at The Weather Channel, because I'm just anal like that, and they apparently do not agree. According to TWC: Wednesday -- high 45, low 21, chance of rain/snow 90%. Thursday -- high 32, low 15, no chance of precipitation. Friday -- high 34/low 21, no chance of precipitation. By the way, all those temps are in Fahrenheit. So from this, I give you the Carrie forecast. There's going to be some type of precipitation on Wednesday. Not sure if it's going to be liquid or frozen. The other 2 days are not too likely to have anything happen, but you better get to the store to stock up on bread and milk just in case!
I'm really glad that I already did my grocery shopping for the week so that I don't have to put up with the idiots at the stores this week.
A few years back, I guess it was in the winter of 99/00, we got several inches of snow. It started in the afternoon and continued into the evening. I was at work at the time, in retail. We stayed open almost until our normal closing time (21:00). I headed home then. At that point in my life, my mode of transportation was a Honda CRX. Not a really big car -- 2 doors, sat pretty low to the ground. I dug my car out of the snow in the parking lot, and off I went. Driving in the snow itself really isn't that bad. The problem here are the other drivers. Get this: that afternoon when it had started snowing, traffic on the interstate backed up from people getting all freaked out. I can hear the conversations in the cars, "Oh mah GAWD, lookit! It's snowin'! We gotta get outta this car or we're gonna die!" So they abandoned their cars wherever they happened to be on the interstate. Fast lane, center lane, wherever. Except the shoulder. Heaven forbid that they actually take the time to move the vehicle to a SAFE place. So then you have people like me, driving home down the same interstate in the dark, trying to determine if that snowy mass that I'm approaching is another car. I was changing lanes constantly to dodge all these cars that people abandoned. Come on, people. It's not that scary. I made it home in my little car even with all the interstate maneuvering.
The other thing I don't get about Southerners and snow is the connection between the forecast of snow and the immediate trip to the grocery store to stock up on anything you could possibly need for the next 2 years. If I see that it's supposed to snow for days with an accumulation of a couple of feet and the weather's not going to get above freezing for a couple of weeks, then I might go to the grocery store to make sure I've got the basics. Not the people around here. Mention the word "SNOW" in a TV forecast and the frenzy begins. Doesn't matter that it's A) probably not going to stick because of how warm it's been before the snow began, B) probably not going to last even if it does stick because of how warm it's going to be the day after it snows, C) only forecast to snow 1/2". People will go to the store and come back with a grocery cart full, even though they may have already done their regular shopping only a few days earlier. They've got to make sure they have enough bread, milk, and whatever else to last them for the next few weeks. You never know, we might get snowed in for a while. The only reason anyone would get snowed in here is from being too scared to drive in the snow, which relates back to my first point. Idiots.
Maybe it's because my mom is from Minnesota and she's accustomed to all kinds of wintry mayhem, but I don't remember us ever succumbing to the Southern snow panic. The only time I ever remember really being snowed in was when I was in elementary school and we got about a foot of snow. We lived in the country (my mom still does) and there weren't any snow plows that serviced our road.
Anyway, since I have all that out of my system, it's time to sound the alarms! We have snow in the forecast. According to KATV, Wednesday's high is 38 with a low of 18 and an 80% chance of snow. Thursday's high is 25, low 12, 30% chance of evening snow. Friday's high is 31, low 15 with a 30% chance of morning snow. I checked this at The Weather Channel, because I'm just anal like that, and they apparently do not agree. According to TWC: Wednesday -- high 45, low 21, chance of rain/snow 90%. Thursday -- high 32, low 15, no chance of precipitation. Friday -- high 34/low 21, no chance of precipitation. By the way, all those temps are in Fahrenheit. So from this, I give you the Carrie forecast. There's going to be some type of precipitation on Wednesday. Not sure if it's going to be liquid or frozen. The other 2 days are not too likely to have anything happen, but you better get to the store to stock up on bread and milk just in case!
I'm really glad that I already did my grocery shopping for the week so that I don't have to put up with the idiots at the stores this week.
posted by carrie at 12/19/2004 11:11:00 p.m.
1 Comments:
I've been in LR since 1978, so I've experienced it all.
And I agree, for all the freaking out, we hardly ever got snow days off from school.
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