Weather Fans and the First Snowfall

Posted By Cliff Tuttle | October 21, 2018

No. 1,576

When winter intrudes on autumn’s normal progression.
Image:marcusashley.com

TV news shows typically give you the weather at the middle and the end of the broadcast.  Sometimes it leads, too. The reason is obvious.  If you tune in just as the weather report is ending, you might abruptly switch to a competing channel.  They are constantly running telephone surveys to determine why we watch and weather reporting usually tops the list.

This made sense in the era before smart phones and apps.  Today, all except the most technologically inept can get the local weather statistics 24/7 on demand.  I am usually interested in only two weather facts, the temperature and whether it will rain or snow soon.  Those nuggets are continuously available on my Apple Watch. And yet, I watch the weather forecast anyway.

You would think that TV weathermen/women would have gone the way of travel agents by now. And you would be wrong.

Weather is a lot like sports.  Somehow, it grabs your attention and keeps it, over and over.  This phenomenon occurs  even though you don’t need to be told what you can see from the nearest window.

Like sports, weather has a regular succession of big events.  We have just been through the hurricane season, which is something akin to the NFL playoffs in its intensity.  When a hurricane is approaching landfall, it gets continuous coverage with live reporting from various beaches.

Most of the time, the story is so predictable that you would think it would hardly be news at all.  Maps showing the advancing storm as a big blob about to hit the helpless coastline. Sheets of torrential rain and high winds blowing stuff around. Houses flooding; cars in water up to the windshield; people being rescued in boats.  And yet, I must confess, just like millions of others, I find this absolutely riveting.  It is on every station, including the news networks that don’t have regular weather reports.  Some even run storm images on split screens through the commercials.

Now that hurricanes are in the past, we are coming up on the next big weather event: the first snowfall.  It is, of course, preceded by the first frost.  Then usually comes the first hard frost.  Then there will be film of a premature blizzard somewhere out there in the badlands. Maybe it is coming our way.

Snow is inevitable.  The only question is when. In my brain, images appear of Bob Kudzma telling Patti Burns that tonight’s snowfall will only cover the “grassy areas.”  That sets up her classic repeating joke: “Don’t drive on the grassy areas!”

And so the wheel continues to turn.  Before long, Winter in all its fury will be fully launched.  Then, we will have to tune in at eleven to be told whether we will be shoveling in the morning.

After several of months of suffering, hope springs once again.

No wonder we are sucked into this mostly predictable drama year after year. Gotta go now.  I want to find out whether the flurries will fall tonight.

CLT

Welcome

CLIFF TUTTLE has been a Pennsylvania lawyer for over 45 years and (inter alia) is a real estate litigator and legal writer. The posts in this blog are intended to provide general information about legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus. However, this information does not constitute legal advice and there is no lawyer-client relationship created when you read this blog. You are encouraged to leave comments but be aware that posted comments can be read by others. If you wish to contact me in privacy, please use the Contact Form located immediately below this message. I will reply promptly and in strict confidence.

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