What's a Delmer Look Like?: A weather update

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February 14, 2007

A weather update

Do you remember the memory I had about a previous mild December? Anyway ...

Just after they tossed us out of work yesterday it quit snowing -- and little ice balls started coming down. I'd hesitate to call it sleet as it didn't have the unfriendly feel I normally associate with sleet. Later in the night snow returned and continues this morning.

Franklin County is currently under a Level 2 Snow Emergency which means we're discouraged from driving and people should call before heading to work. What this means is that the roads are pretty wide open and that the people that are on them have the confidence needed to get to work without causing too many problems. You and I, as I'm sure you are aware, have superior driving skills (mine are just a bit better than yours, probably because it's my blog and I say so) and I imagine you hate getting stuck behind idiots who have no business on the road when the weather is anything but sunny and dry. There are times when Franklin County should declare a Level 2 Heavy Dew Emergency. Not only does it rhyme, but it would serve to keep goofballs off the road and putting around at 20 mph (-3 kph) until the dew burned off enabling the rest of us to get to work in a less stressful environment.

Before I go any further, let me say I'm not advocating ripping up and down the road at 60 mph (roughly 100 kph) on snow and ice-covered roads. but there are times when scooting along at 15 mph when conditions would easily accommodate something a good deal faster is doing more harm than good.

I suspect pulling out short in front of someone who is tooling along at almost 30 (on straight-as-an-arrow) roads instead of waiting for him and his really sweet minivan to pass because there is nobody at all behind him is always a bad idea. I further suspect this occurred to the guy who did it to me yesterday about 1/2 way through his maneuver when her realized the lack of traction was not going to give him the out-of-the-box acceleration he needed and that he was going to more-or-less limp out in front from me. Of course, maybe the guy's a total idiot and that thought never dawned on him.

It looks like we've had about 6 inches of snow in this area. Port Columbus Airport reported four inches at 1 a.m. last night, other areas were reporting more. Six inches is about average probably. Which, for the women readers out there, is just a bit deeper than you've been led to believe since you've started dating.

When I lived in New Hampshire we were getting snow 17 inches at a time. I recall the weatherman saying snowfall would be between 7 and 17 inches and thinking, "Heck, I could make that kind of forecast." Ten inches is a pretty wide range after all. I elevated the weatherguy from mere weatherman to weathergod when folks near the ocean got seven inches and we, further inland, got 17. One of the weather phenomena they'd have in New England was something called a "Nor Easter," which is pronounced as you would expect in the following sentence: "The heathen hordes recognize neither Good Friday nor Easter." It describes a cold and serious winter storm; if the storm is brining with it a lot of snow they call the whole weather system a "Ron Jeremy," though I've always thought "Peter North" would be a better moniker, what with having a direction in the name and all.

Oh, my mom called this morning to remind me to not go out in the cold barefoot. She's concerned that I could slip on the ice, knock myself out, and get serious frostbite before anybody finds me. Just as one little voice inside my head (even as it appreciated the concern my mother had for me) thought the whole idea was pretty absurd, another little voice was reminding me that her concern wasn't much different from that which I have for my children; I always tell them to not do anything as simple as make a peanut butter sandwich if I'm not home -- I'm afraid they'll give themselves a serious cut with the butter knife they'd use.

These photos are from the front of the building today. It was sort of windy and I really didn't care to venture too far out into the lot; I didn't feel like taking my shoes off.