Perhaps “need” is slightly exaggerated here, because I’ve survived without one so far. But it would be really helpful and convenient to have one right now. I recently got quite a bit of snow and sleet that accumulated, and I don’t have a snow shovel. I have a regular shovel, but that’s slow and tiring for snow removal. Plus once the snow mixture started to thaw and then refroze, it became ice that made my driveway treacherous to traverse, and a shovel just didn’t cut it. Obviously the best way to melt snow and ice off my driveway would be with a flamethrower. Plus it would be fun! So it’s a win-win!
People in the South don’t get snow very often, so it’s a big deal. Schools and businesses may preemptively close if there’s a forecast of even an inch of snow on the ground. This isn’t panic — we simply don’t have the infrastructure for it. Why would the cities invest in many snow plows when they’d get used only once every few years?
Many of us enjoy the snow, because it is such a rare occurrence. I live in the South, and we recently got several inches (of a snow and sleet mixture), and the schools were closed for a week. We got to do sledding, throwing snowballs, making snow ice cream (if you don’t know, try it, seriously), building snowmen (or trying to, depending on the texture), and just enjoying how it looks different.
But there is something we do wrong, and we know it. We panic buy. This funny parody song (below) highlights that. Once snow is in the forecast, people buy all the milk and bread. Even though we may be snowed in for just a couple of days (because it’ll be 50 degrees before you know it), that doesn’t matter. We must have enough milk and bread to last weeks, even if we’ve never been snowed in that long. And even though it would make more sense to stock up on non-perishable foods, that doesn’t matter. It’s just part of the experience. People joke about it, but then they do it anyway. Friends shared pictures of the grocery stores, and the whole bread aisle would be empty. People even bought up the yucky expensive bread that’s topped with sticks and rocks.
In this video (below) there’s a person scheduling the weather for the South (meaning southern United States, from part of Arkansas to Florida). Attending this meeting are the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. What will happen as they try to figure out what kind of weather the South should have this year? (This is comedy, if it isn’t obvious.)
While that’s exaggerated, there is some truth to it. My favorite part is winter planning a few snowflakes to shut everything down. That actually does happen. I know people in the up north don’t get it, but in the South there are very few snowplows or trucks to salt the roads. Also, southerners typically don’t have much experience in how to drive in snow, so there’s that danger. But it’s all okay, because snow is so rare here, so it’s a special occasion. I have a friend that grew up in the South, then moved to Colorado. She said most people there take snow for granted, because they see so much of it. Many of the people there didn’t have any interest in throwing snowballs or building a snowman (or snow castles or snow monsters, which deserves its own post).
While there is a lack of snow most of the winter, it also means much of the winter is somewhat mild. It does get below freezing at times, but that’s usually just for a day or two, then it’ll be back to the 60s by the end of the week, so you can return to shorts and T-shirts. The only bad part is the middle of summer, where extreme amounts of heat and humidity mix together for a rather unpleasant atmosphere. But it’s just two months that are really bad. The same people made a video about that, too:
If you haven’t experienced southern humidity, then you might not get it. There are summer days where you walk outside and within seconds you are sweating. Sometimes it seems like sweating starts instantly. I don’t know how quickly the body can respond to the change in temperatures, but that’s not something I particularly want to research. (I will add that I am extremely thankful for air conditioning!)
There’s a saying in the South that if you don’t like the weather, just wait a day or two and it’ll change. That is mostly true, except for July and August, where there’s a 99% chance of it being hot and humid every single day. So for those months, the weatherman’s job of making the forecast is easy — really hot, with a 20% chance of thunderstorms, almost every day.
Well, we just had Groundhog Day. It’s too bad the holiday isn’t anything like the movie. That would be great if we got to live the same day in a row a few times. 🙂 Anyway, supposedly the groundhog saw his shadow, so we have more winter. Whatever…
The news on this day should be what it means that a groundhog bit New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg during their ceremony. Yes, their little festival had violence. I’ve wondered why groundhogs participate in this stupid tradition, when they should be hibernating. Well, “Staten Island Chuck” decided to take matters into his own hand… er, mouth.
But now the bigger question remains unanswered — what does this physical violence mean for the rest of the winter? Does it signal the worst winter ever? Does it foreshadow our ultimate doom? What exactly is going to happen now? I guess time will tell (unless there happens to be a groundhog prediction expert in the crowd)…
Buffet o' Blog 