Storms and rumors of storms

According to the long-range prediction models, the snow we're getting today is only a small taste of what's to come. I subscribe to a paid weather site that includes the four models most weather forecasters use in predicting the weather and all four have us inundated with snow over the next three weeks. They predict snowfall on the ground in five day increments and they have southwestern Nebraska and northwestern Kansas with 15 to 20 inches during the upcoming period. The local short-range forecasters are picking up on that, predicting snowfall for us next Monday and Tuesday and then again on Thursday.

It's something we desperately need because we've had very little moisture so far this winter and the ground is suffering because of it. We don't often see dust storms during the winter in this area but we've seen several in the past couple of weeks. The topsoil is being blown away and that's bad news for the farmers who make a living toiling the ground. The forecasters say that even with the several snows we're due to get it won't break the drought we've been experiencing but it will ease it some and that's good news.

The deep south got a taste of winter weather the first part of the week and a lot of fun was being poked at them on social media by people living in parts of the country that see a lot of snow. But I can tell you, since I'm originally from one of those southern states, that driving around on snow and ice covered roadways is no walk in the park for those folks because they have no experience driving in those kinds of conditions. Consequently, they try to drive like they normally drive with disastrous results like we all saw with the bottleneck on the Interstate around Atlanta. Two inches of snow to them is like twenty inches for us because they have no idea how to handle it. They drive too fast, hit an icy patch and begin a skid and then turn the steering wheel away from the skid instead of towards it, brake hard instead of tapping the brake lightly several times, and plow into another vehicle, hit a stationary object or slide into a ditch.

To make matters worse, they have few snowplows to clear the roads with because it hardly ever snows down there. McCook has almost as many plows as Atlanta does and the street department coated our streets two days before the snow hit with a substance that cuts down significantly on ice and snow buildup. In other words, we're prepared for a significant snow and the people down south aren't prepared for ANY snow. That results in scenes like we saw in the national media. What would be a minor snow and ice event for us closed down roads, cancelled hundreds of flights and literally brought the south to its knees.

Even though many people who live in this part of the country don't like snow, we're at least prepared to deal with it and when you factor in the boost it gives to the local economy by improving the moisture content of farmlands, it's only a minor inconvenience to most.

Few schools in our area are closed today even though we got four inches or so overnight and the Winter Weather Advisory stays in effect until tomorrow morning because of light snow that will continue today and increase in intensity again tonight. In the south, they close schools if snow is in the forecast, before it snows at all.

Like any predictive tool, what we think is going to happen sometimes doesn't happen and these deep snowfall amounts predicted over the next three weeks may not happen either. Even the experts are wrong from time to time.

But just in case it DOES happen, residents in this area need to know so they can plan ahead accordingly.

We've all heard of million dollar rains and if these snow predictions are correct, it could be a million dollar snow.