John M. Setzler, Jr.

Snow Train

Originally uploaded by John Setzler.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast in Hickory, North Carolina includes snow. This happens here occasionally, and the population goes crazy. Local media outlets treat it like a natural disaster rather than weather. It’s just after 11pm as I write this. I’m watching the 11:00 news. The main story is obviously weather. Bulletins along the bottom of the TV screen list schools and businesses that have already announced closings and delays, and the weather hasn’t even started yet.

Hickory hasn’t had a serious snowfall since 1993. The first week of March in 1993, we got about 18-20″, which is a LOT for this area. Driving was rather hazardous for several days because the temperature stayed below freezing. Since that time, we have only had two or three snowfalls that amounted to any accumulation, and those were 6″ or less.

I do love listening to people tell me about the weather forecasts though. I checked the NWS myself this afternoon. The actual forecast was some snow, sleet, and freezing rain with less than 1″ of accumulation. When I arrived at my sports assignment tonight, I heard stories about 5-6″ of accumulation with damaging freezing rain. When i got home, I checked my forecast again and, sure enough, it hasn’t changed.

I would love to hear from some of you who live in areas that do get a lot of snow. Does the media hype it up? Does everything close down?

When we do get a lot of snow here, which is rare, it can create problems. We don’t have snow moving equipment that is very effective at clearing large amounts of snow from the roads.

My personal forecast for tomorrow is:

There will be no amount of weather happening before I have to go take an Anatomy & Physiology test at 7:00am :)

We’ll see what happens…