I’ve been an absentee writer of late, obviously – I’ve been in the process of writing a post about FishieFishies and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day for almost two weeks now, and it isn’t done yet. But I wanted to write a post tonight. I’ve been in Arkansas for the past couple of weeks and was originally supposed to fly back to Boston tomorrow (Wednesday, December 31), but weather.com had all kinds of dire warnings about a big snowstorm that’s supposed to hit in the morning. So, after weighing the possible cost of changing my ticket against the possibility of being stuck ringing in the New Year in someplace like Detroit (in the airport, no less) AND therefore missing the Polar Bear Plunge on New Year’s Day (we have real costumes this year!) AND missing another blizzard (I love them), I flew out today instead. I’m really glad I did. Here’s what weather.com is saying about tomorrow now:
SNOW WILL BEGIN BETWEEN 10 AM AND NOON. SNOW WILL QUICKLY INCREASE IN INTENSITY AND FALL HEAVILY AT TIMES FROM LATE MORNING INTO THE AFTERNOON… WITH SNOWFALL RATES OF ONE TO PERHAPS TWO INCHES PER HOUR DEVELOPING BETWEEN 11 AM AND 5 PM. VISIBILITIES WILL BE RESTRICTED TO ONE HALF MILE OR LESS AT TIMES. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN TAPERING OFF DURING THE EARLY EVENING HOURS.
SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS IN THE WARNING AREA ARE EXPECTED TO RANGE FROM 4 TO 8 INCHES… WITH AMOUNTS POSSIBLY AS HIGH AS 10 INCHES ACROSS THE GREATER BOSTON AREA INTO NORTHEAST MASSACHUSETTS… WHERE THUNDER SNOW IS ALSO POSSIBLE.
IN ADDITION WINDS WILL SHIFT TO NORTH AND INCREASE 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH POSSIBLE. THIS WILL CAUSE CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS. ACROSS CAPE COD AND NANTUCKET NORTH WINDS WILL LIKELY GUSTS TO 60 MPH FROM LATE AFTERNOON INTO THE NIGHT… WITH THE STRONGEST WINDS FROM 7 PM TO 10 PM. THESE WINDS MAY DOWN TREE LIMBS ALONG WITH POSSIBLE POWER OUTAGES. A HIGH WIND WARNING MAY BE ISSUED LATER THIS MORNING FOR THIS AREA. THESE STRONG WINDS WILL ALSO PRODUCE CONSIDERABLY BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW YIELDING NEAR WHITE OUT CONDITIONS.
Yep, I think I made the right decision. My only regret is that I got home seven minutes too late to make a run to Spike’s for a post-midnight hamburger (I am SERIOUSLY craving salty red meat) (they close at 1:00 AM). (Mom, Dad, and Grandma, this is why I didn’t call – if you weren’t already in bed, you should have been.)