So, after a rather underwhelming winter of cold, grey, bland days, we finally get a proper winter storm. A blizzard, as they’re calling it. Up to almost a foot of snow, a heavy layer of ice, some amount of sleet, and heavy winds. A recipe for a nasty bit of weather that I’m kind of excited for and kind of dreading. It’ll be cold enough after the storm that everything is going to freeze up and anyone caught out in it will be in danger. Given that the winter has so far been mild enough to still see people panhandling, I really hope they all have some place warm, safe and sheltered to hide during this. At the same time, I’m kind of excited at the idea of being able to work from home because of the weather. After how crazy busy and exhausting this week has been, I could really use a bit of quiet and peace while I work. I’ve got my first session of my new campaign tonight (the night I’m writing this–this is also why I’ve got no “dev log” for this week, since nothing has happened yet and I haven’t done any further prep) and I’m so tired I’m considering cancelling it (I won’t) just to get a bit of rest. And work on editing this past week’s wrestling event. Wednesday shows really throw me off. All of which is to say that I feel more than a little conflicted and guilty about this upcoming storm because I definitely want it to happen but it runs a real risk of killing power in the area and whoever is forced to go out in that weather is running quite a risk to themselves.

It has been a while since our last bit of “declared a risk” type weather. We had some floods a few years back that shut things down for a while, before Covid, and while Covid itself wasn’t a weather event, it sure felt like one at first, as we were all forced to go into our homes and stay there while we anxiously looked outside. There was a tornado that passed nearby a couple summers ago, that kept me stranded at work until very later, with a heavy enough storm that the power was still out when I got home (and didn’t come back on until later that day). There was even that really cold, windy Christmas a few years back (in 2022, I think) that wound up hitting most of the country and disrupting air travel for months to come. None of those events, other than the tornado, came with warnings to seek shelter and stay sheltered. I mean, hell, the storms that caused the floods didn’t even really register as an issue until the flooding was happening, though it did become super clear rather quickly once they started that problems were soon to follow. This storm, though, got me an email from my ISP warning me about potential loss of service, a bunch of messages from my employer about potential closure, and warnings from my apartment manager about how they planned to handle the snow and ice mid-blizzard (which they wound up not really doing at all). Feels like this one might be a big deal.

That said, it has already lessened in projected intensity in the last twenty-four hours. The time covered by snow and sleet has shrunk. The total accumulation we’re likely to see has gone down. Even the window of the storm warning has shrunk. It is, of course, still possible that the storm might pick up steam again, but that hasn’t happened once in the time I’ve covered. Either everything was as intense as predicted or it wound up losing a bunch of steam in the days before it finally rolled in. Even the bad stuff, like the flooding, was only a surprise because of how intense the flooding got, not how bad the storm was. No one expected quite that much water to stick around. I mean, I don’t want a storm that catches everyone by surprise and is much worse than it looked like it would be, leading to untold damage and risk to lives. I’m just tired of getting a forecast calling for a foot of snow or heavy thunder and lightning that gets cut down to a few inches and distant rumbles before delivering a light dusting or gentle rain. I want some inclement weather! I live in the north, after all! I’m here for the cold and the snow! Give me cold and snow! Stop it with this “multiple days in the 60s during February” shit! I’m already anxious enough as it is, I don’t need more climate anxiety!

All I can say for sure is that whatever happens probably won’t last long. This is going to post just a couple days before Spring starts, when the forecast calls for a pretty dramatic upswing in temperature, so whatever get probably won’t make it to the end of the week. Who knows if it’ll even last the day it falls since it’s not actually going to be that cold during the storm itself. It’ll be getting colder, and should still be cold enough to freeze, but if it’s sunny enough over the course of the day when it inevitably stops prior to it’s forecasted end? It maw thaw out a bit. And make conditions all that much more dangerous because then it’ll be ice, snow, slush, and water, perhaps the make dangerous combination of water forms possible. Honestly, as much as I want this storm and some good winter weather, I just want the temperature to stop jumping around, the pressure to settle back down, and for things to get back to being the way they used to be. Chaotic, sometimes, there’s no denying that, but much more consistent than they are now, where it could snow one day and hit the 70s the next…