On snow in Seattle
Five things you can count on:
- LIVE COVERAGE from the TOP OF QUEEN ANNE! (Doesn’t matter that High Point in West Seattle is a couple hundred feet higher, it’s QUEEN ANNE, and the TV god hath decreed that all LIVE OMIGAWD IT MIGHT SNOW shots in Seattle must be taken from the TOP OF QUEEN ANNE!)
- LIVE COVERAGE from SNOQUALMIE PASS!!!! (Made better his year by the rockslides.)
- All broadcasters will wear slick, stylish custom KING/KIRO/KOMO/Q13 all-weather -70F coats from Eddie Bauer or REI.
- No sudden run on bread and milk at the stores. Seattleites have never done that, unlike other places in this country. It’s either because Seattleites buy their soy milk from their organic producer and their bread from an artisan baker, or it’s because they know the snow is usually gone by noon.
- Absolute confusion about the Metro snow routes. Because of the hills, Metro routes shift during the snow, but it’s never particularly clear where they get shifted to.
What you can do to get ready:
- Don’t panic. We’ve survived WTO, earthquakes, volcanoes, and Tim Eyman. Two inches of snow will not paralyze Seattle. This is not Atlanta.
- But do stock up for the inevitable power outage. Make sure your flashlights have juiced batteries, your portable radio is ready to go, and your best available mammal is around for warmth during the cold night.
- And make sure you have backed up your computer’s hard drive. One bad power flux and your computer could be a goner. It happened to my TiVo during the January 2004 storm.
And if you’re new to the whole experience of a Seattle snow event:
Just stay up to watch the 11pm news and get ready to laugh, especially if you’re from the Midwest or Northeast. There is nothing funnier in Seattle than watching the local newspeople acting like a little snow shower is KILLER DEATH SNOW BLIZZARD OF DOOM ‘05!!!! Jim Forman [bio] on KING is always good for an accurate surmise of the impending doom about to come upon us, usually peppered with lines about children being stranded in ankle-high drifts and comparisons to previous massive 4″ dumps of the last 100 years. KIRO does a decent job of injecting some gravitas into the hyperbole, while KING and KOMO tend towards the overkill of multiple reporters and multiple meteorologists. Q13 has been an up-and-comer in the “dire circumstances” category, mixing their Fox News we’re-all-gonna-die style with mediocre meteorologists who have two radars but still just read verbatim from the National Weather Service forecast.
Again, people, just chill, drink some cocoa (or a mocha latte if you can snowshoe through the millimeters of snow to your nearest java dispenser), and enjoy watching the impending chaos.
# Absolute confusion about the Metro snow routes. Because of the hills, Metro routes shift during the snow, but it’s never particularly clear where they get shifted to.
Purgatory.
:p
(And before anyone gets really down on me for being a crankypants, I should say I love the snow, and this season, and being partially from Alaska, crack right up whenever people around here panic about the snow. What irritates me is people not knowing how to drive, endangering lives, and getting stranded because people are idiots. As long as I’m home, or somewhere with a good supply of food and water and warmth, I’m all good and ready to be entertained!)
“mocha latte”
nice Grey’s Anatomy reference.
good point re metro. i learned that the hard way right when i moved here and i wound up waiting over an hour for my bus to show up to get me to my temp job… sitting freezing out at a bus stop wondering how i would explain why i was late. it never showed up. of course, i had just moved here from chicago, where ‘it was snowing’ is not particularly an excuse for anything whatsoever. poor stupid me.
the kids over at the Seattle LiveJournal are loving your post –>
http://www.livejournal.com/community/seattle/3126692.html
I like the snow, I just wont drive in it because of the hills and the pesky drivers I would have to share the road with.
Last January a friend visited who had never seen snow before (he’s 44). The thought of it made him nervous. He almost cancelled his flight from SF to Seattle because of the predicted snow. When it did actually snow 3 to 4 inches one morning I woke up to him shouting “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD” from the living room. I got up and walked into the living room, looked out the window, confirmed that it had snowed and went back to bed. I heard the front door open, and then an hour later I heard it open again. Joe rushed in, flushed with excitement.
He was gushing: “Oh my god, the snow is SO beautiful. And it’s not just YOUR street, it’s EVERYWHERE”!
I like the snow, I just wont drive in it because of the hills and the pesky drivers I would have to share the road with.
Last January a friend visited who had never seen snow before (he’s 44). The thought of it made him nervous. He almost cancelled his flight from SF to Seattle because of the predicted snow. When it did actually snow 3 to 4 inches one morning I woke up to him shouting “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD” from the living room. I got up and walked into the living room, looked out the window, confirmed that it had snowed and went back to bed. I heard the front door open, and then an hour later I heard it open again. Joe rushed in, flushed with excitement.
He was gushing: “Oh my god, the snow is SO beautiful. And it’s not just YOUR street, it’s EVERYWHERE”!
I’m not sure why that posted twice. Sorry.
Obviously the weather changes will affect a great many who aren’t used to that type of weather–but common sense will keep everyone relatively safe. Seattle’s hills gave me a problem with their slickness–not because I wasn’t aware of it…my car just could not go up Queen Anne without slippin and slidin!
Cully Perlman
President
Degreedate.com
http://www.degreedate.com