The Storm that Wasn't

I'd been hearing rumors of a big storm coming our way, but hadn't really paid it much mind. It was Tuesday morning, and I was on my way to the Commissary for my weekly grocery shopping trip. To my surprise (and annoyance), the place was packed. I couldn't figure it out. It wasn't payday, or the beginning of the month, or anything else that I could think of that normally draws large crowds there. I wove my way through the shopping carts and finally got my shopping done.

Later, I mentioned to Nate how busy the place had been. He said it was probably because of the predicted storm. People were stocking up so they wouldn't run out of anything and have to go out (or go without) during the big snowstorm. This peaked my curiosity, so I went to weather.com and the local news webpage to see what the fuss was about. There was a rather large, nasty storm predicted to come our way, starting that night. We were supposed to get 6-8 inches. There were parts of Colorado anticipating one-two feet of snow. Granted, that was up in the mountains, but still, that's a lot to dump all at once. One bad aspect of the storm was that it was pretty warm Tuesday, so it started off with rain that night. Nate was afraid the rain would freeze, then snow would come down on top of it. Not a good combination.

As I was looking at Facebook that night, I saw that many of my friends were making plans for the pretty-much-taken-for-granted snow day the next day. Plans involved sledding, curling up with a good book and hot chocolate. Me, I was looking forward to getting up with my alarm, checking the weather and confirming the snow day, then going right back to bed. Mmmm, bliss.

So imagine my disappointment the next morning when I got up, and there was only a light scattering of snow. The roads were wet, but not in the least bit icy or snowy. That equaled no snow day, not even a delay. Bummer.

Undaunted, many kids were still expecting an early release day, since the storm was predicted to last all day. Nate thought he'd be teaching his morning classes, but by noon all nonessential personnel would be sent home. Well, it did continue to snow all day, but it came down in teeny, tiny little flecks that melted on the roads, and only slowly accumulated on other surfaces. We did get a total of several inches, definitely enough for the kids to play in, which they gleefully did, but it was nothing like what was expected. There was no early release, either. The school kiddos were left disappointed, and I was left wondering what all the brouhaha had been about.