The Madison city Transportation department 10-15 inches of wet heavy snow over the next 24-36 hours. Typically they send out an email and make press announcements 12-24 hours before the emergency is in force so people can clear their cars out of the way of expected plows and salt trucks.
Today they sent me a snow emergency email with far more detail than I’ve ever seen before. Which includes that they’re not declaring a snow emergency – yet. They expect to sometime tomorrow. It was so detailed I figured it would also be in the city website, and it is.
The highlights:
Good for them, I suppose. I really don’t need to know that much detail, but WTF, it can’t hurt. I’m about to head out and buy some extra groceries just in case I’m stuck in for a while.
You can send as much of that lovely white stuff up here as you like and I’ll gladly take it! The cutoff line for the really heavy snow seems to be Eau Claire… and I’m north of that. We’re going to be lucky to get 2" - 4" total. We’ve still got grass showing from all the melting the past week.
Stay safe though
We are on our way to Rockford from central Illinois. We were supposed to leave in the morning, but after hearing the forecast decided to head out tonight. We are about two hours away, and it’s raining. I understand its snowing in Rockford, so I will be happy to get there tonight and hunker down. Only six inches expected, though, I think.
Since when do Midwestern storms get a name? I have no recollection of a storm with a name around here in my life. New, or have I been oblivious this whole time? If it’s new isn’t it a bit of an insult to people who have real storms like hurricanes?
My SO lives in Neenah but is moving to San Antonio. He left a day early on a business trip because of the expected blizzard. I still have my windows open here in Ohio.
The real problem is that both “Snowmegeddon” and “Snowpocalypse” have been used now. You’ll have to choose from the second tier names for your snow emergency. Available options are: “Snownabbit,” “Snowinconvenience,” “Snowsaster,” and “Sno-owie.”
At 7 am there was at least 6 inches, and it’s been snowing steadily ever since. Apparently they had very high confidence this would be a big storm. Even UW Madison announced last night it would be closed today, and IIRC it’s only closed twice before due to weather in the last 20 years.
As of a couple of hours ago, the local TV meteorologist measured 15" of snow at the station (maybe three miles from me. Still falling steadily, heavy winds and drifting still to come.
That’s easy, because after finding out TWC is doing the naming on its own and the idea is not backed by the NWS or any other reporting agency, the people at TWC are clearly 12-year-old idiots. Seriously, this makes me angry and trivializes real storms and the populations of entire regions who have had to endure true devastation from true storms that actually get names. I have deleted my bookmarks to their website and deleted the app on my phone and replaced them with WeatherBug.
We’ve still got grass showing from all the melting the past week.
