Minor, Regular-Type Snow Tonight, And How The Rest Of The Winter Should Go

Ocean Bluff, MA

The blizzard's moving in
Looks like you're wrong again
When cabin fever hits
It sends us into fits
Of innkeeper's disease
And screaming in the trees
The blizzard never ends
The blizzard buries them...

People who aren't as into the weather as I am often ask me the same series of questions. "Will there be school?" "Is it going to rain on my race/parade/party/wedding/graduation?" "Is the hurricane going to hit us?" You know the deal, or can at least imagine a good % of it.

Lately, I get another question, one I usually only get during sex and conversations.

Sagamore, MA

"When is it going to end?"

They're referring to Winter, or at least this perpetual state of snowfall and Siberian cold that we seem to be in. I don't have the actual numbers, but I think we had 9000 inches of snow this last month. We had our coldest month on record, and our snowiest.

My little area of Cape Cod, which isn't known for excessive snowfall, had 12+" of snow three Mondays in a row, with two storms over 2 feet and one storm pushing 3 feet. We broke the streak not by a cessation in snowfall, but by the next snowstorm hitting on a Saturday.

Here are some odd things I've done, heard or said in the last month:

- "I felt good, really good. I had no idea why. Then I realized that I head been working out almost 8 hours daily with the shovel, and had been doing so for 3 weeks."

- "We'll be happy to shovel your car out, Ma'am, we just have to find it.".... sweeps arm in a manner that shows I am searching an area roughly 50'x50'....... "I think it's over here somewhere."

- Walked 150 yards and back to get some medicine for a lady... took me 25 minutes.

- "I can't tell where the snowbank ends and the 43 room hotel wall begins."

- "You can come down to the cottage whenever you want.... just if you come at high tide, you'll be killed."

Sandwich, MA

- Bought not one but two iced coffees from Marylou's when the temperature outside was -8.

- "No, not that Monday blizzard, the other one.... no, not the Groundhog one."

- (guy from Miami, seeing snow in person for the first time, and he got a blizzard)..... "On TV, it looks more fun. Do people actually go out and skate in this?" I eventually gave this man a sled, and he gleefully threw himself around a tavern parking lot. He was in his 20s, and was up North for a military funeral.

- "Does the Army come and take all the snow away?" OK, that's an old one, from the April Fool's blizzard.

- I knew an Indian woman would start jabbering at me if I used the main entrance and got rock salt everywhere, so I walked up a snowbank and entered my room through a 2nd floor porch. I had to shovel my way in, but the accent of a Calcutta woman raised in England and living in America and who now has to mop up after you for the tenth time is pretty much a high-pitched yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip yip. I had been outside smoking after 18 hours of shovel work, so the extra effort was worthwhile.

Bourne, MA

We're getting some more snow tonight, but a mere 2-5 inches is nothing at all by this point. I actually look forward to the snowbanks getting a fresh coat of powder

The snow will start at 10 PM or so, and should be done around when you start the morning commute. It will be more of a coastal affair, and they are looking at 2-5". Inland locations (central and western MA) will get a coating to 2".

Merely a flurry.

Then, we get a streak of highs in the 20s and lows around 10. You'll be frigid for the rest of the week, but at least the heavens won't be pouring powder on your head.

We then have one more round of bad weather (March 3rd looks to have accumulating snowfall, and the period bookending it looks to have minor and nuisance snowfall), and then things get drastically better. 

Duxbury, MA

I use the resources I have to keep a month and a half ahead of the weather. Anything beyond a week is guess work, but it is educated guess work. It's not 100%, as no 45 day forecast saw any of our blizzards- or even a period of frequent snowfall- until they were a short time away. Even the TV stations missed the first blizzard until about 30 hours before.

However, Accuweather is a voice of authority, and they see some promise for us in this next 45 day period. 

The best part? After tomorrow, you may not see temperatures below 10 degrees for 9-10 months. That's not enough for you? We should see temperatures in the mid 50s a week from a day after tomorrow. Granted, it will snow that morning, but the afternoon should rule.

March 6th is that special day, and dare I say a very New England day. We'll start with a mere coating of snow, winds will go past 65 mph, and we'll hit the mid 50s. After that day, only 4 days of the next 40 will see high temperatures not reach the 40s. We'll have 10 days in the 50s. There is no snow at all forecast in this period.

Duxbury, MA

After that, it will be:

April.

Spring.

Highs in the 40s and 50s.

There's some minor snow called for on April 7th, and that may be this winter's last slap at us. The latest I've seen heavy snow was April 28th, but that was in Worcester.

You can handle that, right?