Winter Starting to Hit With Full Force

It seems like a pattern with some recent winters.

We get hit with some early snow storms and really cold weather, and everyone starts talking about how bad the winter is going to get. In fact, these projections seem to happen every year as winter approaches. I think that I have heard someone or other saying that Farmer's Almanac has predicted a really, really bad upcoming winter now for over 20 straight years. It has happened on occasion, but for the most part, we here in the greater New York/ New Jersey metropolitan area have not been hit with winters that are reminiscent of the older days. Hell, I remember even in my own youth how winters felt quite a bit more severe than they have in recent years.

Yet, once we get those early storms. This year, we had a bad November storm not so much in terms of the amount of snow that fell (it was just a few inches), but rather, because of the layer of ice both under the snow and over the snow. It caused all sorts of traffic problems, and there were reports of some people stuck on I-287 for over 10 hours, and some school children in one of the Oranges being stuck in their school for the night. 

And so, being so early in the winter season (before winter even officially started), it seemed like a bad omen. 

Yet, for the most part, we did not get much of anything for a while after that. We went through most of December, and I cannot remember any kind of tricky storms like that, and nothing in terms of significant snowfall. And while we might have gotten some snow in January and February, it was not a huge amount, either. 

But now, just like last year, it seems like March is starting off with a bang. Just when you think that maybe winter will pass you by with hardly a bang, it starts to show it's frosty bite.

We started off with a snowstorm on Friday, during the first hours of the new month of March. It was not too bad, from what I saw, although northwestern New Jersey got hit harder. Then, last night, we got yet another measurable snowfall, and this one seemed a bit more severe than what they had projected prior to the storm. It was actually enough to make things a bit inconvenient, and we had to clear the snow from the cars and driveways. 

Now, we are expecting the most severe storm yet of this winter. It is set to begin fairly early tomorrow afternoon. It will not last long, yet it will dump anywhere from 5-8 inches in the northwestern part of New Jersey, and less the further south you go. It will not apparently be a long lasting storm, as it is fast moving. Yet, it will produce the most serious measurable snowfall to date for this winter.

We shall see just how bad it is. But clearly, Old Man Winter has not really left. In fact, we might even be seeing it arrive fully for the first time this season!