We’re scheduled to get a bit of snow here this weekend; the Friday afternoon forecast calls for 10″-20″ from now until Sunday morning (a factor of two larger than the forecast that was being broadcast on Friday morning). In the northeast where I grew up, this is known as a nice snowfall but not really a huge deal when it’s spread out over 36 hours. Plows would run continuously and keep the main roads pretty clear. When I was a teenager, I still had to get up and deliver the Gazette at 6AM (Mon-Sat). That never seemed to get snowed out. School rarely closed for snow, either, unless the snowfall was more than an inch per hour, and the plows couldn’t keep up. Even then, things got back to normal in a day.

Here in the DC area, though, it’s an impending disaster. The ritual at this point in an expected weather-related situation (I have a datum for hurricanes, too) is to go to the store and buy a 24-pack of toilet paper and a gallon or two of milk. I’m not sure how long the people who do this think they are going to be isolated, or which item they expect to run out of first. Who knows if my internet connection will be up, or if I will lose power. Last time we got two feet of snow the storm hit on a Sunday, and DC was shut down for 2 days.