winter weather hyperbole?

[smurff]

In the last few months I've noticed that the news media have played up every upcoming snow storm as if it were "the storm of the century"--often those very words are used--complete with warnings to stay home, keep off the roads, press conferences from emergency preparedness staff, footage of plows and salt trucks along with worried people emptying store shelves, the works.  Then you wait for the meteorologist to reveal the STUNNING amount of snow expected, and it's a scrawny letdown of just one to six inches.

What's with this?  I'm talking about northern latitudes, the traditional snowbelt regions of the country, where it's normal to snow in the winter and there is supposed to be an infrastructure in place to deal with it.  Boston, New York, Chicago, Hartford, Detroit, Kansas City, etc.  I can see how this approach might be reasonable in Texas or Arkansas, states that do receive snow in winter, just not enough historically to justify maintaining a massive snow abatement machine.  But in states like Connecticut and New York, where a one- or even a two-foot snowfall accumulation used to be within a normal range, and ordinary life just continued with just a little more caution and allowance for delay-- it all seems worse than Chicken Little crying wolf.

[dualstow]

Well, there haven't been enough shark attacks to pick up the slack.

[smurff]

On the NBC News tonight, the reporter said that the snowfall in Chicago was amazing and terrible and dangerous, with humongous totals, and to top it off, it was the absolute worst snowfall ever seen in Chicago since... wait for it...2011.

WTF!  It was just a foot of snow! That was just two years ago! 

[l82start]

Well, there haven't been enough shark attacks to pick up the slack.

snow shark http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1841840/

[dualstow]

Well, there haven't been enough shark attacks to pick up the slack.

snow shark http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1841840/

It's a news anchor's dream! 

[smurff]

Meteorologist today (March 7):  "Where's all the snow?  Well, it's falling, but it's not sticking because it's too warm outside."  It's 37 degrees in NYC.  A few flurries hit the ground on Long Island.  All those snow-terror tactics over nothing.  Go figure.  The media ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Funny Youtube clip:  Bread and milk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6zaVYWLTkU

[dualstow]

Yeah, I never understand why Americans stock up on bread and milk before a storm. I mean, I get that they're perishable staples but taking a look at the waistlines out there, how about doing without for a day or two?

[Reub]

It was enough hoopla to cause all government workers in Washington to take the day off.

[Pointedstick]

It was enough hoopla to cause all government workers in Washington to take the day off.

Better that than if they'd all gone to work. 

[smurff]

Maybe that's why there's all the hoopla, it's an excuse to shut down schools and gov offices.  Also, if the budget for plowing is too low to hit all the roads, all the exaggeration means that people might assumed that the poor plows were overwhelmed by all 6 of the inches (roughly equal to 0.6 inches of rain).