Panic over a snowstorm makes us look silly

Living in suburban Washington DC, we don’t get much snow. Officially part of The South (South of the Mason Dixon Line), snow is infrequent. BUT not unheard of, not unprecedented. In the past hundred years the area has had snow storms of 28 inches (1928), 40 inches in 2010, (dubbed Snowmageddon), and 25 inches in 2016. Other than due to traffic accidents, these were not fatal and there were no long lasting effects.

The main impact is having to spend thousands to dispose of trees that fell down. Expensive, but hardly worth churning up your stomach acid about. These events were not the Zombie Apocalypse.

Despite the encouraging survival rate of these major stories, (100%), the DC area goes into full panic mode when the possibility of any snow is forecast. Schools close, government agencies close, (free snow day for government workers!), and bread, beer, and milk are stripped clean in the stores. People have fist fights over the last package of hot dog buns. Note, the is the week BEFORE the snow is forecast! We literally close schools when snow is forecast, and then it just rains. Not once. EVERY YEAR.

Snow is forecast for this coming Sunday, six to twelve inches. So orders of magnitude LESS than snowmageddon. Essentially, a non event. Nontheless, starting this past Monday we have endless reporting on the coming weather catastrophe. DC has already declared a State of Emergency (!) over six inches of snow. Imagine the mocking, the hilarity, that people in Chicago, Detroit, and Denver must be experiencing. Sitting in their nice comfy barcoloungers in Hamtramck or Parma, and laughing till they burst watching the cowardly terror of SIX INCHES OF SNOW.

Now, I am mocking my fellow regional citizens. Fairly, I contend. But its actually WORSE than this, because there is similar alarm being felt all the way to the midwest. OMG, an HISTORIC storm. Maybe. Possibly. Unless of course it turns to rain, or peters out, or whatever. Which predicted storms have a history of doing. Ask any Floridian.

People of America: Its some snow. It may even turn out to be just rain, (so our weathercaster chick says). Can we all just calm down, remember that just 10 years ago we had six and half times as much. And same goes for the rest of the country that has gotten itself in a white hot lather, and cleared out the bread aisles at Walmarts.

Honestly, its just NO BIG DEAL. And also: it does not portend the end of the world, from climate change. No matter what balloon head Al Gore says. (Al owns waterfront property btw.)