The Snowstorm That (This Time) Wasn't

Last month (February 2014), it was a storm dumping 30 inches of snow in the Greater New York area that didn't happen.  Now it's a winter storm that was only expected to dump a third of that in the area that didn't happen . . . because it dumped all that snow in southern New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Delaware instead.  The accumulation totals for the Greater New York area kept getting revised downward until there was nothing left to expect.

It's getting bitterly cold now, and, ironically, the cold air is what spared us the snowfall; it pushed the storm farther south.  So if you go outside in the next day or two and feel frigid, be thankful for that cold air and bask in the knowledge that you don't have to shovel anything.       

But, as it's only March 3, chances of a leonine snowstorm for New York City and northern New Jersey in the near future remain very good, and although nothing of the sort is forecast for later this week, we could just as easily get a blizzard next week.  The biggest winter storms have usually been in March, and some of the biggest March storms - the Blizzard of 1888, the Superstorm of 1993, the Great Nor'easter of 2010 - all happened in the middle of the month.  We can't let our collective guard down for a second.

I'm hoping we don't get any major storms, and I hope March makes an ovine exit.  I would hate for it to snow on March 31.

Because first, winter is supposed to be over by then and second, Al Gore - whose birthday is March 31 - would never live it down.