It's the end of the world as we Snow it, and I feel fine..

Ah yes, winter. Cold temperatures, snow and ice. It wouldn’t be Canada without it. Storms: weather events usually containing bad weather, sometimes with damage. Either word on their own doesn`t cause much alarm. Put them together, however, and it`s almost Armageddon. The morning hours of February 2, 2011 and we`re in day two of a winter storm warning that`s supposed to dump a boatload of snow on us. It’s funny. People get in a panic about what COULD happen. Not what is GOING to happen. But what COULD. I mean, we could get the major snowfall they’re calling for, or we could get a light dusting. They called for 5cm on February 1 and we got a few flakes. They’re calling for 15-30 today. We’ll see..


By the way, the phrase winter storm bothers me. Seems winter’s the only season we attach to storm. We don’t say summer storm for thunderstorms. Why not just call winter storms what they are: Blizzards.

My mother-in-law called today to make sure we had bread, milk, candles and all this other stuff. Yes, I know southern Ontario got hit by a major storm earlier this season where people got stranded for days on end. The problem with that storm and this one is this: The storms in southern Ontario lasted for a week, and basically followed another major storm. Their major storm came in waves. If it was rain, it would be a flood. Almost like a snowy hurricane.

The funny thing is the people online have been trying to outdo each other with giving this storm a witty name. Everything from Snowsama Bin Laden to Snowzilla has been thrown around the Twitterverse. (I can’t believe I just wrote that.. shudder) So people are already able to make funnies about it. Let’s see the storm actually come and see what it does first. (I kind of like the Bin Laden one just for the fact that for the most part it’s all talk.)

I know the weather forecasters have a thankless job where no matter what they say people complain about them. I wouldn’t want to do that. Honestly, I’d rather go back on the phones at the call centre than be a weather forecaster, but people have to remember: Just because they’re calling for it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. It’s only going to happen when it’s actually happening. (That sounds kind of Yogi Berra-ish, eh?)

So I guess really all this amounts to is this: either we’re going to be hit by Snowzilla, or it’s going to be Much Ado about Snow-thing.