Youthful Resurgence

I realized something this morning when I woke up.  I still get that simple, wonderful, childlike excitement every time a winter storm approaches.

Like a brass young teen avoiding an assignment, confident that their butt will be planted firmly on the couch the next day, I did not even bother making a lunch last night.  I parked myself in front of the computer scanning the latest radar, finding the newest maps and occasionally (alright, every 10 minutes) glancing out the window.  By the time the precipitation started, my eyes could barely keep focused from a long day of work and hours of looking at weather maps.

As if the anticipation were bouncing around in my head all night, I awoke at 4:02 this morning.  Without missing a beat like a child on Christmas morning, I reached for the curtain to see what Mother Nature had brought me.  Eyes glazed, I pulled on the shade.  Within seconds I knew it was not was I had been looking for.  The ice was not thick.  It didn't even appear to be doing anything.  My morning stupor vanishing, I quickly turned on the computer next to my bed and headed straight for the radar.  Precipitation spotty.  Appears to be breaking up on the back end.  I had made the classic pre-storm faux pas: assuming it is going to be worse than it actually is.  All I could do was go back to sleep and reevaluate things later.

I'm the first to say I enjoy winter.  That part of my youth has never changed and I don't think ever will.  I don't mind the cold, shoveling, scraping windows, snow or anything else associated with my favorite season.  In fact, I haven't missed a Saturday or Sunday run in months.  And that has included runs in snow three times, high wind and temperatures in the teens.  However, there has been one thing I've taken much more of a notice to then when I was younger.

From the time you hit first grade until the time you leave education behind, winter weather always breeds the same familiar pattern.  Wake up.  Look outside.  Turn on the local TV station and hope to see your school scrolling across the bottom.  Closed is preferable, but a delay will work too.  God forbid your school isn't on the list and the moans and groans, complaints and disbelief will sure follow.  Only logical step now is to wait for the entire list to pass again to hope your school was added or was somehow missed by eagle eyes the first time.  At that age you become oblivious to the world that doesn't involve you.  Most of society doesn't work on delays.  My office won't show up on any lists.  When I head out at 5:30 a.m. to start digging myself out, there are the same three or four other people already doing the same.

I say that today after seeing yet again 600+ closures or delays on the local news website.  Schools and Universities closed in some cases the night before.  Meanwhile, anybody else willing (and frankly by 9 the roads were perfectly fine) is out tackling the ice and arriving to work on time.  I say this after Kutztown University opened at 9:30 yesterday morning after that whopping 1.5 inches of snow/sleet to only close at noon the same day 12 hours before the next storm would arrive.  Meanwhile I'm at work at 6:30 a.m. without any issues.  I say this after seeing countless parents leave early during days where roads are clear to pick children up from a daycare closing early.  I understand the need for the safety of children in conditions less than favorable, and I'm sure complaints flood the lines when school in not closed or delayed.  But when given that option, regardless of whether you are 8, 14 or 20 and in college, you never think about the countless number of others who in some cases have no choice but to go.  And when you are sitting in classes during the last week in June, somehow that excitement for a snow day is all but a very very distant memory.

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I'm not touching the Friday night into Saturday storm.  We all could use a little break.  I did however want to share an article to fill the weather void from Accuweather that can be read here.  I must caution, if you are ready to never hear anything about winter again, you might want to avoid this until a later date.

The article gives a little summary of what Joe Bastardi, Accuweather's chief long-range forecaster, sees in his crystal ball following this atypical La Nina winter season.  I share this because from what I've seen and read by Bastardi relating to long term weather, he tends to be very accurate.  I would still take this with a grain of salt simply because forecasters base predictions primarily off of events from the past.  For example, 9 out of 10 La Nina's seasons produce mild air and less snow.  They look at ocean temps, see it is a La Nina year and say, 9 out of 10 tend to be warm and dry, so that's the call.  This turns out to be that one year, like the one we are in now, that is the odd ball.  So basing trends off the irregular season leads me to start guessing.

Bastardi did predict a big warm up towards the end of the month with temps approaching the 60's.  Let's see how he does on that one before we look years down the line.