The Storm That Wasn't

First, some lovely pictures. We got a little snow last Saturday night. This was Sunday morning:

Pretty, no? Yes. And it was such a lovely day. The sun came out and the roads and sidewalks were cleared (by the sun) by mid-afternoon. My favorite kind of winter day. The snow was so wet and heavy. I love it when we get a very wet snow early in the winter season because the ground is not at all frozen. All that water can go deep into our earth, where we need it so much.

Well, this was just the beginning of winter. A blizzard warning was in effect for Tuesday evening. Wow! Everyone said. We must be ready. Schools closed early (like university-type schools) to allow people to get home. People left work early. Some businesses shut down to allow employees to get home safely. We were ready.

I woke up this morning (Wednesday) and turned on Facebook. Yes, this is something I do first thing in the morning. I'm not proud of that, but I do it anyway. Almost every day when I turn on FB, I am greeted by an onslaught of posts where my friends complain about the weather. It seems that almost all my friends in Utah hate the snow and cold. They also complain about the heat in the summer, so you know, take it for what it's worth. Anyway, this morning, I was greeted by an onslaught of posts where my friends in Utah complained about the lack of weather. That's right. "Where's the snow?" "What storm?" And on and on and on.

I feel like writing a blentry about this storm that wasn't. And so I will. I will even divide it into sections.

Forecasting the weather: Is there any job that is more mocked than the weatherman? Really. When they're right (which they are kind of a lot), we ignore them. When they're wrong, we ridicule everything about them. The blizzard warning yesterday came as a result of watching weather patterns. Meteorologists have education coupled with complicated equipment that can determine with some accuracy the future. That's amazing! Yesterday, we were warned of blizzard conditions. By definition, a blizzard differs from a snowstorm because of the wind--not the amount of snow. There can be very little snow falling and we can have blizzard, white-out conditions because of the lack of visibility and intense wind. The official warning said there would be a strong cold front with wind gusts and bitter cold air. Salt Lake Valley was warned that the cold front would hit around 5:00 p.m.

What actually happened: Around 5:19 p.m., snow started falling at the Salt Lake Airport. There was a 12 degree drop in temperature (Fahrenheit) in 20 minutes! And visibility was limited to less than 1 mile. Those are blizzard conditions--right on time. By 10:20 p.m., roads were extremely hazardous. 88 accidents had been reported, as well as 116 other cars needing some sort of assistance. Those are blizzard conditions. This morning, many places in Utah saw little or no snow. But here in West Jordan, we had 8 fresh inches! How delightful.

Preparation: My dad heard a meteorologist on the radio. I didn't hear him, so I may get this quote a little wrong. Early in the day, the meteorologist said, "This is a blizzard warning, but it's not the Apocalypse." Ha ha! That's funny. But, let's think about the culture we live in here. We love to be prepared. We have food storage, emergency 72-hour-kits, candles, firewood, ways to cook without gas or electricity, etc. It's a teaching of the dominant religion and part of our culture here. But, alas, we rarely have an emergency. We don't get hurricanes, volcanoes, tornados, violent rain, intense snow, freezing rain, ice storms, etc. They say we're due for an earthquake, but it's not happening that often. I recently read a story on MSN.com called "Mother Nature's Favorite Places." Utah was ranked #5. How was it judged? Rarity of any kind of natural disaster. So, we sit here with all of our preparations and nothing to do with them. I think there was a little excitement at the idea of being able to hunker down and get through the horrible conditions. Of course, I don't think there were even any power outages reported. We are all fine.

Family Night: This was the best part of the day. Everything was closed. The warnings told us to all go home and stay home. People obeyed. My FB friends--and it is by them that I judge the world--all seemed to be enjoying family time: games, movies, stories, etc. Imagine how blessed we were! Two days before a major holiday, we couldn't prepare. We couldn't go to the store or travel or do anything. We stayed with our families and spent time together. We were quiet and at peace. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be with my family, and I don't think I'm alone in that.

In the end, I think we were very blessed that this storm wasn't as bad here as it was north of here. The weather patterns showed a severe storm that was gaining in strength. What a blessing that it relaxed a little before it reached us. The cold temperatures are what they are. I prefer the 30s to the 12s. :) But it's so pretty. Look at my pictures from this morning:

But then again, I like snow. I like winter. And I took meteorology in college and have a sympathy for those in the profession.