the rix mix

Our noreastern arrived a few hours early last night & blew through so fast that we luckily missed a major winter storm here near sea level. One is much better off getting calm forecasts from the National Weather Service or Weather Channel; the local news shows went into hysteria mode on Wednesday & kept it up right through last night, by which time the prosaic NWS warnings were predicting almost exactly what transpired for central Jersey. I never stop being amazed how out-of-touch people are with their natural environment. Folks up in northwest Jersey & along the coast - who expect lousy, inconvenient weather & deal with it - are able to make adjustments, calculations & reasonable guesses based on local conditions & experiences. They actually read a thermometer, pay attention to arthritic toes, or step outside to sniff the air. If they believed New York City TV "meteorologists." they wouldn't leave home from December to March. Earlier in the week, an internet acquaintance living about six blocks away from me went into shock when she looked out her window & saw a coating of white on cars in her parking lot. "There's gotta be two inches of snow out there, & it's coming down hard." I looked out my window, judged it to be about 1/4 inch of frozen precip mixed with rain, confirmed the observation with a quick check of a multicolored online radar, but could not convince her she'd only be scraping her windshield. In any event, she can smell the Dunkin' Donuts from her location.