The thing about the Wintry Mix

I should amend my previous post. We've got a mad snow storm going on outside and my Gmail doesn't know it yet. It still has grey clouds hanging around. There's still hope.

Did you know it frequently snows sideways in Buffalo? On those days my house shakes fairly violently due to the wind.

Humorously, when I studied abroad in Seville, Spain I used to laugh at the local weather reports. Nearly every week would be like this, give or take 10 degrees:

Monday: Sunny, high of 85°F
Tuesday: Sunny, high of 79°F
Wednesday: Sunny, high of 80°F
Thursday: Sunny, high of 82°F
Friday: Sunny, high of 75°F
Saturday: Sunny, high of 78°F
Sunday: Sunny. One cloud might cross the sky around 3:07 p.m.

I exaggerate very little. Living in the Midwest most of my life, we have four, full seasons with plenty of everything: Sun, snow, rain, heat, wind, cold, ice, hail, tornadoes. etc. I found Seville's weather to be refreshing on the whole, but uncomfortable during the sweltering summer...

Here in Buffalo, the weather report is equally humorous in its repetitiveness. The little graphics on the weather forecast are not sunshine looking egg-yolks. Instead, they've been replaced by an all-encompassing graphic I like to refer to as "Wintry Mix." Wintry Mix (at least on the local tv stations) is often hard to distinguish from "Just Plain Snow." Meterologists use this ambiguity in their favor when predicting weather. Just like in Seville where it was sunny and hot, here in Buffalo they are confident in two things: It will snow. It will be cold. Any deviation from this standard is just a lucky break. And since the snow accumulation varies greatly depending on one's proximity to the Great lakes, the "Wintry Mix" icon always covers the bases.

So yes, it does snow here every day, even if it's just a few flakes. And yes, the forecast got it right, even if it's only sleeting, thundersnowing and raining at once. These are all variable components which can fall under the "Wintry Mix" icon. No need to check the weather or hire someone new for graphics, the "Wintry Mix" will be here until Aprilish.