Finally Some Snow

In Formula One racing (as in many forms of auto racing) there is a term used to describe some of the smaller teams which usually can't compete at the same level of the more expensive teams out there due to limited budgets, longer development times and what-have-you. These teams are referred to as 'also-rans'. Now you may be wondering what that term has to do with a blog that most obviously seems to be about snow. Well, it may be a long and roundabout way to get to the point but I guess what I'm trying to say is that finally, Washington got some snow that it could point to and say, "See? We got some significant snowfall too."

This past weekend the area was blanketed overnight Sunday with a fine layering of snow that led to what many in the DC area had been calling for for a long time; a snow day. It seems that besides the DC Metro area, most of the country had already had close to half a dozen significant snow events and Washington had been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have not had any. Sure we had a couple of bouts of ice that lasted a day or two but it wasn't anything as bad as what seems to have attacked the rest of the nation. I mean there are parts of the country that have been contending with feet of snow rather than inches. Now not to poo-poo the 5 to 11 inches that our area received over the weekend but it's certainly not in the same league as parts of the country which have been dealing with snow since way back in November of last year.

Still, when I heard that significant snow was expected sometime Sunday I was a little surprised because up until then I hadn't heard a peep out of the weather forecasters in our area. Every time in the past few weeks that there was even the possibilty of snow, weathermen (and women) would suddenly get us all in a tizzy by telling us that this latest system 'could be significant' and that they were watching the models carefully. Then when driving to and from work I would see road crews sitting in their snow plows on the side of the road waiting for the first flakes to fall. And more often than not, we didn't see anything. I mean it got to the point that if snow was falling in the western portions of West Virginia then weathermen around DC would say that snow was falling in heavy amounts in the far western suburbs of Washington. Had it been any longer before some snow fell around here they could have started including the Ohio Valley as part of the far western suburbs of our area.

Still, perhaps I'm being very harsh on weathermen. They have a tough job and though the science is improving they still have a difficult task before them in the prediction of weather so I'm sure they were overjoyed beyond words to see that their predictions (however late they may have been) finally came true and that they had accurately stated what the snow event would look like. Now while I'm happy that schools were closed and that work was delayed by a bit because of the road conditions and the significant snow falls, I can't help but think how different these recent 'storms' have been compared to what we used to get around this area when I was a kid.

I can remember when significant snow meant a couple of feet around here too. I can remember getting snowed in at school during the day or being stuck at home for a week due to several feet of snow on the roads. Now it's been so long since we've had a significant snowfall of anything over 8 inches that when we get three the area goes into shock. Perhaps it's an exaggeration but it's also partially true. Ask anyone around here who's lived in the area for more than a decade or two and they'll tell you. I love how everything looks when there's a fresh coat of snow on the ground. The whole world looks different but also sounds different. It seems quieter and calmer; so much so that it adds a short sense of serenity to the area. This past weekend's snow event may not have amounted to much but at least it gives us in Washington a chance to say that "we had snowfall too! We had road closures and school closings too. So we (in Washington) are just like you."