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Fake Snow News


MickinMD

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Snow events in Central Maryland bring my late mother's voice to mind, "If you watch the TV weather news during a snowstorm, you'll never go outside!"

On Tuesday evening, after a day of rain/snow/sleet melting everywhere except for a thin film on grass, when there were no snows on the roads anywhere near Baltimore, the TV news was warning we were going to get hammered overnight with up to 8" of snow. Accuweather, etc. online forecast, "Wet Roads."

It is Wednesday and after 10 am. There is NO snow on the roads in city and suburbs of Baltimore. There's not even an inch of snow on the grass and it's melting due to the warm ground and 34F and rising temps. So the Baltimore TV News is shooting footage from past storms and has reporters "on the scene" - at places an hour's normal drive to the North and West of Baltimore.

Every so often, they give up a shot of the Baltimore Beltway, where there's not even snow on the road shoulders but we're told, "The high volume of traffic is helping conditions there."

Then there are reporters who drive to the distant suburbs and report, "We didn't see anything but wet roads on the drive here, but there have been accidents (there are almost ALWAYS a few accidents in the morning rush hour) so don't go out on the roads."

I'm quoting as I'm listening to the TV news:

They're telling us things like, "This is just one of those days NOT to be a rebel: don't go outdoors unless you have to."

And, "The WHOLE area is going to be plastered with 6 to 8 inches of snow before this is over."

Right now, the CBS Affiliate is reporting "Road crews are extremely busy," with a reporter standing in the 1/2" of road snow at Hereford, MD - halfway between Baltimore and York, PA. When Baltimore County Schools announce weather closings, the "Hereford Zone" is considered separate from the rest of the county because it gets worse weather!

Now, there's a reporter with his hand on a snow plow: "These bad boys are ready for action."  The plows are parked in a state roads parking lot and not preparing to plow the nonexistent snow!

Another reporter near the PA border, "The market is open and we see people going in and out. Cars are driving by. We didn't have any trouble getting here (a long drive from Baltimore!)."

Now, they're back in the studio showing a map, telling us we're getting 4" or 5" of snow total by 6 pm but saying, "these are radar estimates."

Now the Baltimore County Executive is telling a reporter he hasn't had to use his snowblower all Winter, but he MIGHT need it today. The reporter doing the interview warns him the snow is so heavy (in other words it's melting slush!) that the snow may be too heavy for his snowblower.

This is the fourth Nor'easter in the past two weeks, so they're calling it "The Four'easter." Clever - not.

I did have to sprinkle a little salt on my front steps and sidewalk to make things more safe for the mailman later today.

I got my grocery shopping yesterday, driving through the blizzard that melted on impact - just like it's doing today.

 

 

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It’s like the boy who cried wolf. They rave about these big storms that never happen and then when we have a storm nobody believed them and they were not ready. The interstate is closed between our exit and Ohio. The secondary roads will be next because of the traffic from the interstate crashing on the secondary roads. Getting home today will be interesting.

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44 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Snow events in Central Maryland bring my late mother's voice to mind, "If you watch the TV weather news during a snowstorm, you'll never go outside!"

On Tuesday evening, after a day of rain/snow/sleet melting everywhere except for a thin film on grass, when there were no snows on the roads anywhere near Baltimore, the TV news was warning we were going to get hammered overnight with up to 8" of snow. Accuweather, etc. online forecast, "Wet Roads."

It is Wednesday and after 10 am. There is NO snow on the roads in city and suburbs of Baltimore. There's not even an inch of snow on the grass and it's melting due to the warm ground and 34F and rising temps. So the Baltimore TV News is shooting footage from past storms and has reporters "on the scene" - at places an hour's normal drive to the North and West of Baltimore.

Every so often, they give up a shot of the Baltimore Beltway, where there's not even snow on the road shoulders but we're told, "The high volume of traffic is helping conditions there."

Then there are reporters who drive to the distant suburbs and report, "We didn't see anything but wet roads on the drive here, but there have been accidents (there are almost ALWAYS a few accidents in the morning rush hour) so don't go out on the roads."

I'm quoting as I'm listening to the TV news:

They're telling us things like, "This is just one of those days NOT to be a rebel: don't go outdoors unless you have to."

And, "The WHOLE area is going to be plastered with 6 to 8 inches of snow before this is over."

Right now, the CBS Affiliate is reporting "Road crews are extremely busy," with a reporter standing in the 1/2" of road snow at Hereford, MD - halfway between Baltimore and York, PA. When Baltimore County Schools announce weather closings, the "Hereford Zone" is considered separate from the rest of the county because it gets worse weather!

Now, there's a reporter with his hand on a snow plow: "These bad boys are ready for action."  The plows are parked in a state roads parking lot and not preparing to plow the nonexistent snow!

Another reporter near the PA border, "The market is open and we see people going in and out. Cars are driving by. We didn't have any trouble getting here (a long drive from Baltimore!)."

Now, they're back in the studio showing a map, telling us we're getting 4" or 5" of snow total by 6 pm but saying, "these are radar estimates."

Now the Baltimore County Executive is telling a reporter he hasn't had to use his snowblower all Winter, but he MIGHT need it today. The reporter doing the interview warns him the snow is so heavy (in other words it's melting slush!) that the snow may be too heavy for his snowblower.

This is the fourth Nor'easter in the past two weeks, so they're calling it "The Four'easter." Clever - not.

I did have to sprinkle a little salt on my front steps and sidewalk to make things more safe for the mailman later today.

I got my grocery shopping yesterday, driving through the blizzard that melted on impact - just like it's doing today.

 

 

Mick, Mick, Mick.

You don't get the whole panic thing, do you?

Embrace the panic.:runcirclsmiley:

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We have a local weather guy who does a good jon keeping it real.  He explains the forecast and probability without creating drama.  In fact he mocks the other network weather folks for stirring up the sheot.

Odd thing is this is the same network news that has the girl in the field who likes to dress as a fire girl with the mask perched on her head or put her pretty golashes on when it's sprinkling.

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30 minutes ago, BuffJim said:

Mick, Mick, Mick.

You don't get the whole panic thing, do you?

Embrace the panic.:runcirclsmiley:

I think it is one of those classic situations of having TOO MUCH "information", too much time to fill, and too much need for ratings.  I'm working from home today, but my TV hasn't been turned on yet.  I have no idea what "they" are saying, but I can look out my window and see, and I can look at Intellicast or whatever and watch pretty radar. No hype, no worries, no drama.

When I was a wee one, it was read the morning paper, then catch the evening news, maybe read the evening paper(!!!), and then that was it. No opportunity for hype :(

Tom

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Actually I got it a little wrong. The street in front of my home has no snow on it and when the snow ends around 6 pm, I'll make a quick sweep of the about 1" of slushy snow on my porch, sidewalk and car to avoid more work if it somehow freezes over night.

But my old schoolmate Mike, who lives about 2 miles from me, posted this picture on Facebook. The closeup-stuff looks like a drift but if you look in the distance you can see there's only a couple of inches on steps and vehicles, though his street got a little accumulation.  But definitely not the 8" the TV news promised us!

5ab2b2c4bb4c9_Snow3_21_18.thumb.jpg.e1543a22d2455025200193470c39baa2.jpg

 

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15 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Actually I got it a little wrong. The street in front of my home has no snow on it and when the snow ends around 6 pm, I'll make a quick sweep of the about 1" of slushy snow on my porch, sidewalk and car to avoid more work if it somehow freezes over night.

But my old schoolmate Mike, who lives about 2 miles from me, posted this picture on Facebook. The closeup-stuff looks like a drift but if you look in the distance you can see there's only a couple of inches on steps and vehicles, though his street got a little accumulation.  But definitely not the 8" the TV news promised us!

5ab2b2c4bb4c9_Snow3_21_18.thumb.jpg.e1543a22d2455025200193470c39baa2.jpg

 

Estimates are not promises. It's an educated guess.

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The snow was late but it's just starting pretty heavily now.  New Haven, about a 60 mile drive from here already has 5 inches.  The expected snow amounts however have been falling as the weather guessers refine their estimates.  It seems that there is snow falling at about 2" per hour just south of Long Island and the difference will be if it crosses our coast and moves inland or not.  We are at a point where 25 miles will make a large difference.

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11 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...when I looked at CNN briefly, they had some poor guy on the White House lawn talking about politics.

It looked like a pretty good accumulation for this late in the Springtime for D.C. to me, but it's been 40 years since I lived there.

It's not unusual to get snow accumulation in late March here but, because temperatures are like to be around 50F the next day or so, it doesn't last.

NO government weather source was expecting 8" of accumulation, they expected 8" of snow to fall and the vast majority to melt.  That was reported at most of the online weather sources.

But the TV stations went out of their way to avoid mentioning the 8" wasn't all going to accumulate!  More people will keep tuning them in that way!

We get snow in the first week of April more often than not - but it doesn't accumulate. Still, people say, "Can you believe it. It's snowing in April!"

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2 hours ago, dennis said:

Estimates are not promises. It's an educated guess.

I am not one of the over-reactors, but I do love them.  My commute home is always an hour after I get to the car.  Today it was 30 minutes, I was doing 80 to keep up with the traffic.  We were supposed to get 18 - 21 inches, as of now, the roads are bone dry.  People fell for it, I won.  I wish they would have a prediction like this every week.

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I guess that depending on your exact location it was or wasn't "fake" snow.  I ended up with about 2 inches on the cars and deck rails but 0 or dust on the driveway. (remember my various predictions ran from 3 to 16)  I guess Long Island got hammered with as much as 20 inches. Can you pronounce Ronkonkoma.

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An old timer I used to work with always said “ there’s more time wasted waiting for the weather than because of it” lot of truth in that.

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8 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

I guess that depending on your exact location it was or wasn't "fake" snow.  I ended up with about 2 inches on the cars and deck rails but 0 or dust on the driveway. (remember my various predictions ran from 3 to 16)  I guess Long Island got hammered with as much as 20 inches. Can you pronounce Ronkonkoma.

 

8 hours ago, Kzoo said:

No please help

 

8 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

I'm not sure that's possible.

 

$_1.JPG

...is it anything like the Ronco Cap Snaffler ?:huh:

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