The Day the Snow Storm Broke...

I don't know the future, and I don't know how to predict the weather (there's a half-dozen guys where I work who get paid a lot more than I do for that), but I do know a rolling panic when I see one.

The snow is falling again here, and it would be a picturesque and delightful sight but for the fact that it's the third time since a massive Christmastime storm brought the area to a standstill, closing the interstate for tens of miles and stranding thousands. Meanwhile, a larger low pressure system is approaching to strike in two more days. What will it bring?

On Facebook, a friend described a woman busting into his downtown store saying "there is potential for 3 or even 4 feet of snow." Another friend, who labors at the city's public works department, said they were getting calls from people asking about a possible 30-inch snowfall -- a figure he could find no source for. Nor could I. A quick trip to the station's most recent forecast warned of a "big low pressure system," but said nothing of massive snowfall. As a matter of fact, I sensed a reluctance to even predict snow at all, as the temperature line falls so close to us. (Should it move north, we get slushy rain.)

This is like James Thurber's "The Day the Dam Broke," but with lower temperatures. I envision increasingly jittery crowds slowly gathering into a great flow toward the Kroger's, washing over the milk and bread aisles like a great tide. Quickly, toilet paper must be bought!

Well, I'll be packing an overnight bag again this weekend as I head to work, just as I packed one last weekend (unused) and packed one in December (two nights in a hotel next to the station, and even getting to there and back was a struggle), because I don't know the future. Welcome to my World in the snow...