The Blizzard of 2015, what the Weather Channel called Winter Storm Juno, lived up to its billing in New England and parts of Long Island, but it left only a moderate snowfall at best in the New York City area. Local officials have been chided for shutting down the city and the states of New York and New Jersey, but New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, for one, is defending his actions, saying it was better to be safe than sorry. And he's right. No one knew exactly how the storm was going to play out, and the slight shift of the storm's direction, too subtle for anyone to see coming, made a big difference in who got how much snow. Some areas saw a difference of half a foot of snow accumulation within a few miles of each other.
Weather forecasters, unlike others in the news media, are the only folks you see on the local news who have to report on what's going to happen. No one can tell you what will happen in Russia or Iraq tomorrow, and, except for oddsmakers, no one involved in sports even dare try to predict a score margin or point spread in a stick-and-ball game before it happens. The National Weather Service official who apologized for his bureau's erroneous forecast has nothing to apologize for. The National Weather Service did the best it could to predict what would happen like anyone else.
Anyway, we can now go back to looking at the next storms coming down the pike. A nuisance snowfall is expected to push through later this week, followed by a more potent storm early next week.
Did I happen to mention that an ice storm is predicted for next Thursday?? :-O I hope the forecasters are wrong about that, too!
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