The calm before…
…the storm.
This storm is being hyped as the storm of the century. I’ve been in quite a few of those, but I guess they were in the previous century. So we’ll see.
I really, really, realy hope not to lose power. But I think it’s likely that I will.
[NOTE: Forecast here.]
[ADDENDUM: They give names to winter storms these days, and this one is called Juno. Here’s quite a bit about the Roman goddess Juno. Metaphoric significance?]
Good luck with the storm. Perhaps I could put in a good word with my “goddess”?
Hope you haven’t been screwing around with Zeus.
It is only The Weather Channel/weather.com that has named winter storms the past few years, not the National Weather Service. It’s pure hype that I suppose is supposed to boost rating.
What’s next? Naming car wrecks?
I have since relocated to Tennessee, but in western CT, I endured both the January 96 blizzard and the President’s Day storm of 2003.
neo,
If you do lose power, presumably you will not be able to update this blog. Rest assured that we, your loyal readers will suffer vicariously with you.
Juno, that two faced bitch!
“If you do lose power, presumably you will not be able to update this blog.”
Headline: POWER TO NEONEOCON LOST. INTERNET CUT OFF!
The forecast could be wrong or exaggerated.
“It’s tough to make predictions; especially about the future.” Yogi Berra.
I’ve never lived where it gets really cold so what do you do if the power goes out? Kerosene heaters?
Of course if you read Instapundit youv’e already bought one of those generators he’s always pushing.
Before I moved south later that year, I experienced the Blizzard of ’78. Though in some ways the ice storm of
’73 was worse, as it knocked out the power for days and days. Seems to me that winters were colder when I was a kid.
Let Frank put you in the spirit: Let it Snow. As long as you are inside and warm, or can easily get inside and warm up, snow has its points. But not to drive in. One Christmas my aunt, uncle and cousins drove East – nearly all the way in a snowstorm. There were three feet of snow on their car’s roof when they finally arrived.
Al W
I’ve never lived where it gets really cold so what do you do if the power goes out? Kerosene heaters
Those who have fireplaces, use them. In the ice storm of ’73, which New Englanders of a certain age will remember, the power got knocked out for days and days- which knocked out electric ignition oil furnaces. I don’t remember how long: 3 to five days? We huddled around the fireplace, while the inside temperature away from the fireplace got down in the 40s. I was working in a hospital at the time, which had an emergency generator.
I think I will follow Cornhead on Yogi Berra’s predicting. Though Yogi was an envoy of the Evil Empire, this native of Red Sox Nation freely admits to being an admirer of Yogi’s wit.
Good luck, neo. I hope you keep your power. Blizzards are survivable with reasonable preparation, but long power outages suck.
I’m in southeastern PA, and the forecast here varies from 4-8″ to 6-12″. Not that bad, really. I’ve seen worse.
Have you considered buying a generator? I thought about it after losing power for three days after Sandy, but I haven’t done it yet.
I saw this tonight. I’ve heard of the Great Blizzard of 1888, but I’ve never heard about this storm before: The Great Snow of 1717
1966 in rural Iowa we had 20 inches of snow and blizzard winds, drifts against buildings were 20 feet. No electricity for 10 days, but we had wood stoves and plenty of stored food. We played cards at night… great time.
It’s a good thing we’re experiencing Global Warming! Just thgink how bad the storm would be if we weren’t. What? What’s that you say? Global Warming makes things colder? Nevvvvverrrr mind!
My kids and I were talking tonight about why every single storm seems to be “storm of the century” now. My thought is that when The Weather Channel began and had to come up with 24/7 weather “news,” they had a significant stake in making weather interesting. Prior to that, of course, weather didn’t have to be interesting – it just had to be as accurate as possible.
Jamie:
It’s the Weather Channel that came up with the idea of naming snowstorms. The National Weather Service doesn’t do that, and pretty much nobody else recognizes those names. It’s all about hype and ratings.
It’s a shame. I used to be able to take the Weather Channel seriously, but they’re increasingly becoming like pro wrestling.
Rickl: “the Weather Channel . . . becoming like pro wrestling”
LOL! That is so true.
I can’t remember where I read it; but, a few years back the Weather Channel supposedly asked the National Weather Service to name winter storms and were basically told to take a hike.
The National Weather Service, at that time anyway, saw themselves as providing a serious public service and weren’t interested in the news media’s “weather hype.”
They hype the storms so much that the should rename themselves the-sky-is-falling chicken little. I think there could have been a lot less trouble if they reporting accurately without hype and more folks would have listened when they did predict Katrina and Sandy. But, the hype leading up to those storms wasn’t much different from all the hype we heard before.
Lastly, it is really getting annoying in my town with all the robocalls from the Police to warn of upcoming weather. I’ve received one each day for the last three days. All, no doubt, paid for with my tax dollars.
NY City Mayor William Wilhelm, aka Bill de Blasio, aka Bill de Bolshevik, has closed:
The highways
The subways [!]
The parks [!!!!]
Zere vill be no SLEDDING in ze snow, Comrades!
Alzo, all you proletarian masses vill just haf to Valk Home!
Never mind: if you don’t wriggle, you won’t feel the chains.
Of course, there has been ZERO snow in Manhattan for the last 3-4 hours, and now the weatherpersons are trying to salvage the drama by sticking rulers into snowdrifts (sign of a busted storm) in Long Island. . . .
I admit it: I was hoping for a whopper. We had a real good one in 2006. And there’s also the “White Hurricane of 1888” to look back on: 30-60 inches in the city, 200 died, and people actually crossed the East River on ice floes:
http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-blizzard-of-1888-132307180.html