What Happened to Nor'easter and/or Blizzard?

I remember growing up as a teenager in the 60s, Walter Cronkite would come on talking about the big snow storm along the east coast.  They called it a blizzard or Nor’easter back then and people seemed to know what to expect & how to prepare.  Because psycho-scientists determined people now days are no longer smart enough to understand danger, they come out with new words (Bombo-Genesis, Cyclone Bomb, Arctic-geddon, etc) to try to scare folks into acting, to take personal responsibility for their safety.   I had to chuckle hearing a reporter ask a Bostonian…” are you ready for this storm”?   I’m para-phrasing, but the lady basically answered…it’s the middle of Winter, it’s supposed to be snowy & cold…we call it January!   But that’s all you’ll see for the next 12-24 hours.  Video showing the wind & snow blanketing the main cities of the Northeast, like that doesn’t happen at this time of the year.     The media doesn’t need to create new phrases to describe decades/centuries old weather events (Remember Snow-mageddon?).  I think Forrest Gump said it best…stupid is what stupid does, or something like that.

 

Last night I told you I’d let my water drip.  However, after watching David’s 10 pm broadcast seeing how the temperature had increased up to 39, I decided not to since we were not likely to get down to 28 degrees (Pipe Rule thresh hold).  I felt the cloud cover would keep use from falling that low. (actual low 35)  I guess most people didn’t see it that way and ran their water creating some pressure problems on both sides of the Lake.   Tonight could be different since the cloud cover is gone.  The only saving factor for the South Shore could be the winds coming across the Lake.  However, I checked to see water temps & they are now down into the upper 40s so the Lake will not provide that much help.    David is thinking 24-26 away from the Lake on the South Shore with 18-22 north.     I’ll watch his 10 pm broadcast and decide if I need to run my water.  Again, all you need is one faucet dripping a pencil thin stream.   There is no need to run your faucet when the temps are above 30 degrees.  I’ll probably start mine when I go to sleep around 11 and turn it off after I get up around 7 AM.  I may wait until the temps warm above 30 before I turn them off.     Again, let your common sense control.   We are not done with the freezes as Friday morning, maybe Saturday will be below freezing.  A real warm up arrives on Sunday into Monday when highs could flirt with 70.   With such cold water temps, any warm air streaming north from the Gulf should create some fog issues.   The cold fronts coming next week will be of Pacific origin resulting in much milder air than what we have this week.