Blizzard of 2005

The Great Blizzard of 2005 is now in our past although we will probably have to view its impressive droppings for weeks to come. While nothing in weather is certain, there s a high likeliness that we won’t see anything like it again this year which is good because for one thing there isn’t much room left to pile up any more large amounts of snow.

By recent standards this didn’t measure up to the recent President’s Weekend storm of 2003 or the monster blizzard of January 8-9 1996, which remains the standard by which all recent storms are measured. The real nastiness of this storm was saved for Coastal New England, which suffered through historic wind and snow that shut the area down for two days and was scary to watch.

Although we were saved the worst that Mother Nature can dish out, a large amount of area people weren’t taking any chances. Lines of over two hours
were not uncommon in places like Blockbuster Video and Shop Rite, where people hoarded loaves of bread as if the stores would never reopen and rented DVD’s as if they would never be able to venture outside again.

The timing of the storm was excellent for my running group which starts around 7 am Saturday and was done before the flakes started falling. With the dire forecasts and with the knowledge of how long plowing takes, it was prudent to try and squeeze a little extra out of the workout. My run brought back vivid memories of the Saturday run before the 1996 blizzard. Both runs were done in low single digit temperatures but the big difference was the 1996 storm didn’t start until Sunday morning.

Usually they prey off winter weather calamities, but I can’t blame the local television stations for this one. It is not uncommon to hear all night teases for the late news with “Snow in our forecast” even if that means flurries in the Catskills, but this time the weathermen were pretty conservative in their forecasts, not mentioning the “b” word until they were pretty certain on Friday afternoon that two low pressure systems would merge in the Atlantic Ocean causing snow prediction totals to double.

But the word must have spread quickly because Friday night and Saturday morning there was a flurry(No pun intended) of activity with wide spread panic eliciting the worst of human behavior as almost everybody seemed to have procrastinated and were now battling in a race against time before the snow storm became too intense.
We noticed the additional traffic on our normally serene running path and we were careful to be even more observant than normal to the unpredictable behavior of drivers.

I’ve actually learned to almost enjoy these events, especially if there wasn’t something in my schedule that was going to get cancelled. We get some family time and you can call just about anybody, knowing they will probably be home. Even though the light fluffy snow seemed perfect for snow blowing I was more than content to cross train with my shovel. Once again running clothes provided the perfect attire for the task which always unfortunately seems to have dire consequences for those too unfit to shovel.

If I’m fortunate to be home when the snow starts, it’s great to be warm and dry in my house taking a welcome break from the hectic pace of everyday life. The follow-up is never enjoyable with the badly tended local roads, the increase in travel time and messiness of freshly fallen virgin snow quickly turning into unsightly slush but there’s always a sense of relief that you have survived.

Inevitably there will be another one of these dreaded weather events and when it transpires one could be assured that all the lessons of planning will again be forgotten. Home Depot will again run out of shovels and salt. There will be no bread and milk in the stores and courtesy will be forgotten as
Darwinism takes over.

So bring on the next blizzard but please delay it until the next presidential administration.