The
Blizzard of 2010 is history and in the record books. Well, at least the first blizzard... no telling if we'll see another or not this winter.
For some, it was an incredible once-in-a-lifetime event. For others, like some people on my
Facebook page have said "it wasn't any big deal". Just like many winter storms, it often depends on your location. 20 inches of snow in Syracuse is a "medium-sized" storm at best. Schools may be cancelled but traffic still moves and people still get around, it just takes a few minutes longer.
However, take the storm we tracked and monitored this past weekend. What a difference from place to place. 20 inches of snow fell in New York City! That was a major storm with most everything grinding to a halt and the NYC Department of Public Works issuing an emergency request for private plowers to help keep the city streets open. The further south you go, the greater the problems and with less snow, and yes, even once-in-a-lifetime for some areas.
6-12" of snow fell in central and western North Carolina with 2-7" on the coast. I know for a fact many parts of coastal North Carolina have no snow removal equipment and simply must let the snow melt. Atlanta, Georgia had 2-4" of snow making it their first white Christmas in 120 years of record keeping! Certainly this can be called once-in-a-lifetime and something residents of Atlanta won't soon forget. Nashville also had 5-8" of snow giving Music City their first white Christmas in many years.
Yes, it all depends where you are located. It was a big deal for some and no big deal for others. Of course, there are other factors that can make a storm a "big deal" , not just location. For instance, with this past weekends storm, when you get 20" of snow with extensive blowing and drifting hitting s heavily populated city i.e. The Big Apple, that helps elevate it up the Big Deal chart.
Our team of CNY Central meteorologists does a lot of forecasting for NYC through my private weather company,
Precision Weather Service. We had to be in touch with the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority every two hours days before the storm began and throughout the storm. Even being as prepared as they were, there is only so much you can do. There were at least two subway trains stuck in five foot snow drifts near JFK Airport all Sunday night. Just like the
situation we heard about a few weeks ago on the New York State Thruway south of Buffalo with that lake effect storm, hundreds of people were stranded with no food or water for many hours.
It's a terrible situation that doesn't happen often, but it goes to show us that Mother Nature does indeed have the upper hand no matter what we may think.
In the deep south, like Atlanta for instance, since I already mentioned them, they will often cancel school if there is even the chance for snow in the forecast for the next day. And by 'snow' I don't even mean several inches, I mean they will cancel school if they hear not much more than a coating of snow might fall tomorrow! Up here in the north, we laugh at that!
So yes, a blizzard or any snow storm is all relative, and where we are located here in Central New York, we were mere spectators to the Blizzard of 2010.
