Golly, I wonder which way the snow is falling?

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In summary, every news agency sends a reporter outside to stand in the falling snow, and to emphasize how hard the snow is falling, what they always say is "It's really coming down out here!" This phrase is usually met with a "Wow" from the audience because it seems like the reporter is in the middle of the snowstorm. The reporter is usually standing in driving snow trying to deliver the same bulletin, which is frustrating because they could have done it more clearly in front of a map indoors. TV reporters who chatter for the sake of chattering are usually ignored by the audience. The weather is supposed to get ~8'' (20 cm) of snow, although the temperature might be up to 20°F (-6.6°
  • #1
lisab
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A http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/12/19/winter.weather/index.html" , right in time for Christmas. So every news agency sends a reporter outside to stand in the falling snow, and to emphasize to the audience how hard the snow is falling, what do they always say...

"It's really coming down out here!"

Sometimes, you hear that phrase with a "Wow" in front of it.

Sigh. English...it's a nice language really, lots of words to choose from, each with nuanced shades of meaning. There must be *thousands* of ways to say "this is heavy snowfall" but that's the only phrase anyone in the media ever uses.

Makes me crazy.

Meanwhile, to all PFers getting gently clobbered with little snowflakes...how's the weather?
 
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  • #2
Well, it has been coming down here a bit more gently but we expect more flurries do descend upon us tomorrow.
 
  • #3
I think it's just the producer's revenge on meteorologists.

On the US news channels (or FOX) you see some perfectly made up, not a hair out of place blond in the studio say, now we go to our weather person...
Cut to shot outside of some guy in driving snow trying to deliver the same bulletin they could have done more clearly in front of a map indoors.

They should just include the real reason in the link -
"Now we cut to Joe the weatherman, who is outside in the storm because he didn't predict it would rain for the producer's daughter's wedding."
 
  • #4
lisab said:
A http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/12/19/winter.weather/index.html" , right in time for Christmas. So every news agency sends a reporter outside to stand in the falling snow, and to emphasize to the audience how hard the snow is falling, what do they always say...

"It's really coming down out here!"

Sometimes, you hear that phrase with a "Wow" in front of it.

Sigh. English...it's a nice language really, lots of words to choose from, each with nuanced shades of meaning. There must be *thousands* of ways to say "this is heavy snowfall" but that's the only phrase anyone in the media ever uses.
Like we've never had snow before. :rolleyes: Maybe it's a big deal in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Here in the NE, it's no big deal. It seems to be an annual event.

I pretty much ignore TV reporters who seem to chatter for the sake of chattering.

Meanwhile, to all PFers getting gently clobbered with little snowflakes...how's the weather?
We're supposed to get ~8'' (20 cm) give or take. The temperature might be up to 20°F (-6.6°C) today - up from about ~12°F (-11°C) during the night. It's been like that for the last 5 days, although there is less wind today - so far. BTW - this is normal weather for this time of year.

Interestingly, the kale is still growing - even with temperatures below freezing. It is certainly an interesting plant. :approve: The Swiss Chard has croaked.
 
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  • #5
Move to Maine, and you'll get a bit more variety in the descriptions. Usually, local news-casters don't talk much about snow-storms unless they have caused serious accidents, etc, and the weather-men tend to give more usable descriptions like "It's snowing quite heavily now, especially well inland where the snow is accumulating at the rate of 2-3 inches per hour". Standing out in a blizzard with a microphone is such a cliche...

BTW, thanks to an arctic high that brought us a cold snap the last few days, the storm will be forced off-shore ... Yay! I'm getting sick of shoveling and snow-blowing and it's not even winter yet.
 
  • #6
The other day I was stuck in the railway station for a long time during the evening rush hours, because half an inch of snow fell the night before. Can you imagine that? I have a hard time comprehending why. A clue: they declared an emergency and stopped all railway traffic for hours. On paper that means that all trains are driving on time (because there is no time), which means you cannot ask your money back. That means that at the end of the year, they will not be fined for bad service, because it was an emergency and that does not count. Half an inch of snow that fell the night before, the whole situation was ridiculous.
 
  • #7
Here in LA it's 75 degrees. :D
 
  • #8
It hasn't snowed here in 20 years.
 
  • #9
We're getting a dusting of snow here, just starting to collect on the ground. kurdt's getting snow.
 
  • #10
Here in toronto it's snowing a bit and then stops; now melts; repeat. We had a bit of snow come down the other day that was enough to make the roads quite slippery so me and my friends went drifting... it's all gone though.
 
  • #11
Gently snowing all day long. Beautiful, and very funny. It seems Strider thinks its his job to eat all the snow that falls. So he is running around the yard jumping at flakes as they fall. I pity the flakes!
 
  • #12
hypatia said:
Gently snowing all day long. Beautiful, and very funny. It seems Strider thinks its his job to eat all the snow that falls. So he is running around the yard jumping at flakes as they fall. I pity the flakes!
Duke eats snow, too, but he has a special affinity to the snow that is already in my snow scoop or shovel, and he's always getting in the way. If he has eaten a bunch of snow, he gets chilled easy, but I try to leave him hooked out on his run for a bit before I bring him inside, because eventually he will throw up.

My neighbors' granddaughters (4 and 6) think its fun to throw snowballs for him, because he tries to eat them all. Their dog (a shepherd/pit bull mix) has a bit more sense in that regard.
 
  • #13
It's been POURING snow here all day! :frown: I was supposed to be on the road to NY to see my bf. It's supposed to stop sometime tonight, and I just hope the roads get cleared quickly so I can make the trip tomorrow instead. I miss him doubly when I'm supposed to be there not here and can't leave home.
 
  • #14
lisab said:
Golly, I wonder which way the snow is falling?
Down. I hope it keeps up.

Something grows in my back yard, but I'm not sure what it is. I think it's an apple bush. I've owned this house for 15 years and this fall was the first time it bore fruit. They look just like apples, but are hard as a rock and don't taste sweet at all. Now I see that it has flowered. Just one little cluster of three little flowers and a green leaf. Perhaps it's a nut.
 
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  • #15
It's falling sideways in my hometown.
 
  • #16
If you are in Cleveland (I am not any longer), they don't even use the word 'snow'. You can't GET them to use the word 'snow'. It's 'Lake Effects', 'Effects', or just 'Activity' LOL.
 
  • #17
rolerbe said:
If you are in Cleveland (I am not any longer), they don't even use the word 'snow'. You can't GET them to use the word 'snow'. It's 'Lake Effects', 'Effects', or just 'Activity' LOL.
LOL, I used to live in Upstate NY and was in a belt of "lake effect" snow. Which meant NO snowfall was less than 18", snow would start in September with the tv contest to guess the day of the first 6" snow, then we would defrost in June of the next year. Although the pitch of the roof was very steep, you always had to have people shovel your roof. Roof collapses were always on the news.
 
  • #18
I had to do an industrial training seminar at a nuke plant in Oswego in 1988. The snow banks were already massive by the onset of winter, thanks to "lake effect" from Lake Ontario. Airport security was crazy on the flight back home - Pan Am 103 was bombed just a couple of days earlier.
 
  • #19
No snow here in eastern Mass. :frown: I was kind of counting on it. Every year I wait till it snows and then I go do my Holiday shopping since everyone stays home (I have 4-wheel drive).

Still waiting...
 
  • #20
jimmysnyder said:
Down. I hope it keeps up.

Something grows in my back yard, but I'm not sure what it is. I think it's an apple bush. I've owned this house for 15 years and this fall was the first time it bore fruit. They look just like apples, but are hard as a rock and don't taste sweet at all. Now I see that it has flowered. Just one little cluster of three little flowers and a green leaf. Perhaps it's a nut.
Persimmon, perhaps? They have a lot of tannins and have to be ripened off after picking before they lose enough astringency to be fit to eat.
 
  • #21
Ben Niehoff said:
Here in LA it's 75 degrees. :D

Sure, but you have the 405 fwy. That alone is a 100 degree demerit. :biggrin:
 
  • #22
lisab said:
"It's really coming down out here!"

It's a real snowman-strangler? It's coming down by the sleighful out there? There's more snow out there than at a Saturday Night Live crew party?
 
  • #23
turbo-1 said:
Persimmon, perhaps? They have a lot of tannins and have to be ripened off after picking before they lose enough astringency to be fit to eat.
No, we eat persimmons by the dozens here and these are nothing like. It's as if an entire apple was planted and a dozen or so of the seeds took root. As a result there are many thin trunks no more than an inch and a half in diameter in a circular area of about 1 square ft. It grows along with another dozen or more trunks of some other species and vines climb it as well.
 
  • #24
jimmysnyder said:
No, we eat persimmons by the dozens here and these are nothing like. It's as if an entire apple was planted and a dozen or so of the seeds took root. As a result there are many thin trunks no more than an inch and a half in diameter in a circular area of about 1 square ft. It grows along with another dozen or more trunks of some other species and vines climb it as well.
Interesting. There are lots of heritage varieties of apples here in Maine that aren't even edible until after they have been hit by hard frosts. When my wife and I rented a farm-house many years back, there was a big Black Oxford tree by the driveway. The apples had a brownish-purple tinge to them, with yellow flesh. They were tart and hard as a rock, but got somewhat edible after a few hard frosts. They would keep practically all winter in the cold cellar and were primo for making apple pies, apple-sauce, and apple crisp. Even in the dead of winter, they were hard and crunchy, and we didn't eat them like regular apples.
 
  • #25
Up to 20 inches in my yard just outside of Baltimore.

This is the largest December snowfall ever recorded in Baltimore. In fact, this one snowstorm is bringing more snow than ever recorded in an entire month of December in Baltimore. It's one of the top 10 storms to ever be recorded in Baltimore.

Stupid snow...
 
  • #26
Astronuc said:
Maybe it's a big deal in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

I didn't get any snow. :cry: I'm just a bit too far south and too low (elevation). All we got here was rain and a little bit of sleet. Meanwhile my "local" TV stations are reporting on the snow in the North Carolina mountains about an hour's drive north of here. Asheville got about a foot and Interstate 26 got tied up completely because of semi-rigs jackknifing on the big grade going into the mountains at the NC/SC state line.
 
  • #27
About 6 inches of snow on the ground, not snowing at the moment, and around 0 deg F.
 
  • #28
jtbell said:
I didn't get any snow. :cry: I'm just a bit too far south and too low (elevation). All we got here was rain and a little bit of sleet. Meanwhile my "local" TV stations are reporting on the snow in the North Carolina mountains about an hour's drive north of here. Asheville got about a foot and Interstate 26 got tied up completely because of semi-rigs jackknifing on the big grade going into the mountains at the NC/SC state line.
The mountain areas along I-81 and I-77 seem to get quite a bit of snow during recent winters.

We're supposed to get between 6-12'' (15-30 cm) tonight.
 
  • #29
A week and a half ago it was 7 degrees at night. Today it is 58 degrees F.
 
  • #30
We've got about a foot of AGW on the ground now with another 8 inches tonight and tomorrow. Don't drive tonight unless you go where you're looking and don't get hit by a stop sign.
 
  • #31
Jack21222 said:
Up to 20 inches in my yard just outside of Baltimore.

Being in DC, I'm guessing its about the same. Dog seems to enjoy it though :)
 
  • #32
The snow has finally slowed down to a trickle here. Shoveled the drive 3 times today to keep up with it...ugh! The third time would have been no big deal, just taking off the last inch after dark so it won't freeze over by morning, except the snow plow finally came through and snow plow drivers must all be taught to aim the snow at driveways. There is nothing but a big hay field across the street from me...no houses, no driveways, nothing whatsoever to be blocked in by snow, and no reason they couldn't push the snow bank to that side of the street as they plow, but NOOOOOOOOOOO, they HAVE to leave a mound a foot high at the end of the driveway. :mad:

They're ending the winter snow advisories early, by midnight instead of 6 AM, and still by 6 AM in the mountains the next county over to the east, so I think I will be able to get on the road tomorrow. Once I'm through the mountains, I'll be fine, because then you don't have to worry about sliding off a cliff if you hit a slippery patch. :eek: I figure if I wait until late morning to leave, they'll have the interstate cleared enough to travel.

Students were supposed to be out of dorms this weekend, but the university made provisions for them to stay if they couldn't travel today. Though, I can only imagine the parties if there are a bunch of students snowed in with no classes or exams and no place to go.
 
  • #33
It's raining here on the west coast :cry:
 
  • #34
Jack21222 said:
Up to 20 inches in my yard just outside of Baltimore.

This is the largest December snowfall ever recorded in Baltimore. In fact, this one snowstorm is bringing more snow than ever recorded in an entire month of December in Baltimore. It's one of the top 10 storms to ever be recorded in Baltimore.

Stupid snow...

Worried about my boat/home (in Baltimore). That's a lot of additional weight. Up in New Haven, CT at the moment and it has just started here. Only a dusting so far...
 
  • #35
It is snowing right now! :!) And it's cold enough that it doesn't immediately melt! :smile:

Oh my god, I just checked and the trains are again not driving today, so probably also not tomorrow. What a bunch of incompetent bastards that work there.
 

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