Here it Comes
Posted on January 27, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 52 Comments
Big storm on its way — well, the leading edge is already here, because snow is falling. We’re expecting between five and eleven inches of snow, which is, for those of you not up on these things, quite a bit for a single day (Canadian and Alaskans — yes, yes, we know. You laugh at our wimpiness, etc. Fine). Basically, if you’re anywhere in the Midwest or the East coast above Washington DC, now’s the time to hit the supermarket. Tomorrow you might not be able to get out of your house. I have no doubt my daughter will see this as a feature rather than a bug.
Will this hurt my palm trees?
My sister is driving from Colorado to Michigan today/tomorrow. Fortunately, looks like she’s going to miss almost the whole thing. We’re just barely catching the edge of it up here. Does Athena know about sleeping with your pajamas inside out and licking a spoon and putting it under the pillow. Powerful charm for Big Snow, according to 4th grade lore…
In Alexandria, next to DC here – we’ve already gotten about 3 or so inches today. More tonight. So nice to finally get a decent snow this winter – and that’s coming from a Texan who rarely saw 3 inches of snow growing up.
Crap. This means it’s going to be full on weather-woody mode at work tonight.
I absolutely adore winter storms, just wish they’d happen on my days off so I wouldn’t have to deal with the stupidness at work!
What is this “snow” thing of which you speak, and why would one want to partake of it?
Is it like cold beach sand, blowing in from western Canada and Alaskan beaches?
We’ve been promised 12-15 inches here in west-central NH. Ice melt bags are stacked, shovels are lined up by the door, and Mister 9HP Sears Two-Stage Snowblower is gassed up and ready to increase some greenhouse effect. Bring it on, Gaia.
Sunny and warm (20-degrees Fahrenheit) with not much of a chance of snow here in Wisconsin.
Good luck, though. I’m sure our beating is right around the corner.
Most of the schools around here (Dayton-ish) are closed today. I tt a co-worker a little bit ago – her hubby & twins went out sledding after lunch today.
We were all hoping for early dismissal from work, but it’s not looking likely since it’s already after 3pm…
They (the weather guessers) are telling us in the Albany area we’ll get anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of white crap. This on top of the 2 feet that still hasn’t melted from the last dumping. I often wonder what I’m doing living here… the weather sucks like Chicago, with none of the benefits. Makes me cranky, it does.
Hah. In southwest Ontario here (the province, not the city in California). Almost all of the snow is supposed to pass south of us!
Huzzah!
I already took tomorrow off. It’ll be hopeless trying to drive across our rural roads to work.
Where I grew up, we called this a “dusting.” However, since SW Ohio, where John and I both live, is on that whacky border between the Great White North and the Sunny South, we only get this once or twice a year.
This is when you can afford to take a day or two off and wait it out.
HOWEVER…
Here’s how bad it really is.
BigHugeCo closed its offices today. That happened only once, about two years ago, and the last time, 27 years before that.
Even more shocking, my wife’s employer, which considers a direct hit by a 50 megaton weapon grounds for a 90-minute delay, opened late and will close early.
Either it’s going to get really, really icy here, or the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been warming up down at Turfway.
Well, it could be the latter. It’s almost 2012. Have you got your shopping done?
The first round just wrapped up here about an hour or so ago (I’m in DC). I’m not looking forward to round two – that’s supposed to turn into freezing rain overnight, and what’s more fun than ice on your way to work?
Former New Jerseyan looks out the window in Los Angeles, turns back to his Animal-Style Double Double, once again congratulates himself on relocating.
And then he double-checks all his furniture earthquake retention brackets and home insurance, because he’s familiar with karma. :)
Yeah, sorry about all this. It’s because it’s my birthday.
First real snowfall of the season pretty much always hits DC on or immediately after my birthday.
Correlation and causation are totally the same thing, right?
It started up again here in Day-tron about an hour ago. I shopped yesterday and have enchiladas on the menu for tonight (ooh–and I bet I have margarita fixins, too!). Might as well enjoy being stuck. I just wish the kids in the ‘hood wouldn’t come around asking to shovel snow for $ when it’s *still snowing*! But days like today make me ridiculously happy that I work from home :)
Dallas is going to shut down for a quarter inch of ice tonight. It was 80 just last week.
Finally being a shut-in will be fun.
Skip (#17) and I will probably be holed up at home because overpasses will be closed due to that quarter inch of ice. If my abode were in Dallas and not Austin, I’d share my hot chocolate and Girl Scout cookies with him. Alas, I’ll share in spirit!!
My area north of Philadelphia is forecast to get 3 to 6 inches of snow & sleet, with 1/4 inch of ice on top. As, like, you know, icing.
grumble, grumble…..
No snow yet up here in the northeastern corner of Ohio, but we feel it coming. The kids are positively giddy with the forecast.
And here in the south we’re getting rain…fog…rain…fog… typical winter weather for the next several days.
Enjoy the snow daze.
We had the snow. (S Indiana), now we’re getting the ice. School’s off today, tomorrow, and possibly the next day. As per Athena, my sons view this as a definite feature.
At least it’s not another ice storm…we are SOOOO tired of ice storms…
Could you guys send some over to our mountains in California? We’re dying of thirst here.
Oh NOES! A French Toast alert! Quick–to the supermarket for bread, eggs, and milk!
(Have fun tmw! We’re expected to get only about 8 inches here.)
The Truck Gene Boys have been rocketing off the walls all day today.
I expect more of the same tomorrow.
*sigh*
What I want to know is: Who invited Al Gore to speak on Global Warming?
Clearly Vermont is not far enough away from DC to have escaped the Gore Effect.
Newton may have been on to something…
“To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
You are about to be snowed in, in Melbourne, Australia we are working through 5 days straight of 100+ temperatures. 109 expected tomorrow.
Don’t forget to stock up on SPAM and mung beans!
SE Texas is sitting at 75 right now…Windy and cloudy. IZ am sure our moisture is feeding your precipitation both frozen and not…
Have a safe Snowmageddon everyone.
@26 A French Toast alert – I love it! But you forgot the toilet paper…
Here, we are expected to get 5-9 inches of snow topped with a nice dollop of sleet and freezing rain.
May make my 8am meeting a bit challenging, but the folks from DC are already here so it WILL be happening.
Great! Yet another huge snow storm that is not anywhere near the mountain I ski on. Jasper would kill for 30 cm of snow right about now.
This is why I love Cleveland: it was almost 50 on friday (the track team was running around outside in shorts!). Now we’re supposed to get 5 inches of snow. Sadly, it won’t be able to top our spring break snow storm of last year… nor will it be canceling any of my classes!!!
From Central Ohio, I just hate winter. If I could load up on the next moving van heading south, I would be on it in a minute. However the wife hates summer. Guess who wins!
East Central Indiana here. We’re getting now what you’ll be getting in about an hour. Happily I have Wednesdays off. So I’m not complaining. No ice in the forecast. Ice I would complain about.
I’m in NH and I already told my boss I’m not going to be at work tomorrow. Yes, I’m a wuss. I also have a little tiny car and a half hour commute on a good day. I plan to do laundry and cook and read.
I’m in Louisville and we’ve had round 1, are in the middle of round 2, and will have snow for round 3 after midnight.
The glaze of ice over the snow makes our backyard look like a skating rink.
Frak.
From San Antonio:
Had to drive to the doc’s this afternoon to have stitches removed. Left the house at 1:10 with a 70 degree temp (F). Returned at about 1:45 in 49 degree weather (F). It’s now 36 (at 9:40 our time).
The temps have been yo-yoing like this for the last few weeks. It really plays hell with your sinuses and trying to decide what to wear for the day (wear shorts and take your mukluks…)…
Dave
I just moved to Alabama from Columbus, OH two weeks ago. I am not missing the snow one bit…
Dear Nature:
You lazy *****. Either bring enough to get me out of work or don’t bother. >:(
So this would not be the right time to mention that I’m in Melbourne, Australia and at the moment it’s 41.4 C so that’s 106.5 F and we are expecting this for the next 4 days.
Dear Aussies:
Allow me to demonstrate the correct way to taunt…
It was 75 F and sunny today in Tallahassee. I had the windows open in the car and at the house. Tomorrow it will be a little cool — only about 70. So I’ll probably wear a long-sleeved shirt while driving around with the windows down.
Stay safe, stay warm. :)
Here in Adelaide, South Australia, it is expected to hit 44C today.
Can we have some of your snow? If you’re not using it?
Dot (#43): I’ll take -40 over +40 any day. I can dress for -40 but they won’t let me walk around naked and even then I’d still be too hot at +40…and sunburned. ;)
Dear God,
Thank you for convincing me to move out of the Midwest. I’m still pissed about that business trip to Wisconsin that You sent me on a few weeks ago. And making cheese give the same signature as plastique on a TSA scanning screen? You’re so hilarious. But I appreciate the no snow thing.
Canadian and Alaskans — yes, yes, we know. You laugh at our wimpiness, etc. Fine
Don’t worry, John, we’re too busy dealing with earthquakes and pending volcanic eruptions here in Alaska this week.
Snow, is so last month.
OSU (Columbus campus) canceled classes about two hours ago. Woo! Third year in a row that OSU has canceled classes for any reason, that’s got to be some sort of record.
Paul@46 Oh! I agree, it’s past the nice warm weather stage and on to the OMG how can I keep cool, and praying the electricity doesn’t go down. Our forecast for the next few days is 43C, 43C, 35C, 31C (cool change), 34C. Tomorrow is the bad day because its windy so bushfire weather.
Meanwhile, in the land of the Bowler Hat, it’s raining again with a side order of fog, with forecasts of more rain and less fog, followed by less rain and more fog.
I’m looking out the window and realising why my ancestors had the urge to build an empire spanning Australia, India, Africa – basically WARM places.
D’oh! Up in #10 I mocked John because the storm was going to pass south of us in SW Ontario. The durn thing went a bit farther north than they thought, and we’re getting pasted too! Fortunately, it’s just snow up here, but we’re going to be getting 15-20 cm of the stuff.
Note to self: Do Not Taunt John Scalzi. He Will Get Even With You.