Ice, Ice … Maybe

http://www.andertoons.com

“Meteorologists are the only profession where you get paid to guess and be wrong every day!”

I have no idea who is responsible for the above quote, or the many variations of it, but it is SO true!  About 5 days ago, they started talking about a “major storm” that would bring snow, rain, and ice.  This storm was “capable of causing power outages that could last more than 72 hours”!  As we got closer to the storm hitting, the predictions became worse.  There was talk of anywhere from a half inch to an inch of ice or more being possible.

Meteorologists were all over it.  This storm was to begin moving in Friday night and continuing into Saturday.  We were to get tons of rain (which we did), and there was going to be lots of flooding (which there was), and by late Saturday the winds were going to pick up and turn the water to ice.  That ice on trees and power lines, would cause “massive power outages” and lots of damage.

Before picking up my sons on Thursday, I stopped for gas.  The place was nuts!  People were lined up, filling gas cans, propane tanks, and their vehicles.  The workers were worried that they were going to run out of gas because so many people were coming to get it.

We stopped at the store to get some groceries.  As you can imagine, everyone was out trying to stock up in case they were “iced” in.  Our stove is electric, so we altered our normal grocery list and got stuff that we knew we could make on the grill outside, or stuff that we could easily throw together without having to cook. We got milk and cereal, bread and lunch meat, and stuff that we could throw in a cooler if we lost power. We also made sure to have flashlights and candles ready.  We also grabbed some water, just in case. We weren’t the only ones….

Around 11am Saturday, the State Police were all over social media telling people to stay off the roads unless it was an emergency.  The rain was to start changing to sleet and ice around 2pm.  I texted my ex to see if she wanted me to bring the boys home early so that neither of us would have to venture out on Sunday morning.  I hated to cut the time with them short, but at least they wouldn’t be out in a car on icy roads.  They were back home by 3pm.

Did we get ice – yes.  Was it a lot?  Not really.  Snow ended up covering most of it.  Kudos to the folks who took care of the roads.  Local roads still had some snow on them, but the expressways were clear.  The funniest thing I saw when I woke up for work was this:

This happens so much that I wonder if the meteorologists are in cahoots with the local grocery stores.  “We really need to get rid of all this bread, milk, and eggs…..can you whip up a nice winter storm to help us move it off the shelves?!” With all the modern technology, you would think that the predictions would be more accurate.  Obviously not.

The last weather man I trusted was Sonny Elliot!  He was a fan favorite here in Michigan. He did weather on radio and TV for 70 years!

He made up words like “Cloggy” which was a combination of Foggy and Cloudy.  Clousy was Cloudy and Lousy.  Huggy was Humid and Muggy.  His forecasts were full of silliness and jokes.  He’d say things like: “Today will be as pleasant as diaper rash,” “The storm is as suspicious as a dermatologist with acne,” and “Driving will be as hazardous as tap dancing in a canoe!”

I digress.  Let me wrap up by saying that I am glad that we didn’t get as much as they predicted.  I am also glad that we didn’t lose power.  While I enjoy cooking on the grill, I’d much rather do it during the summer.