A major winter storm is expected to hit Cincinnati beginning tomorrow afternoon, and continuing into Monday. The storm will bring sub-zero wind chills, sleet, and 3 to 6 inches of snow, if forecasts are to be believed.
Cincinnati, located right on the old Mason-Dixon Line, is neither fully North nor South. It lies in an intermediate zone, so far as winter weather is concerned.
We are not far enough north to develop a ho-hum attitude about winter. Most of our winters are relatively mild, by national standards.
On the other hand, we are far enough north to occasionally get socked by a bad winter storm, like the one that seems to be coming. This brings jokes about ‘Snowmageddon’: a local tendency to overreact to impending snow.
There is something to the jokes. Grocery stores here are often crowded in advance of a snowfall that Minnesotans or Wisconsinites would regard as light to moderate. Winter weather is a source of considerable anxiety for many people in Cincinnati.
My maternal grandmother was one such person. She was still working during the blizzard years of 1976 to 1978, and she obsessed over every weather forecast during those winters.
As for me: I don’t like winter weather, but it’s a part of life here one year out of three, from late December through the end of February. And we seldom have a winter that is miserable all the way through. Our cold and wintery patches are usually interspersed with warm spells.
For example: on December 26, afternoon highs climbed into the low 60s (Fahrenheit). I was comfortable outside in shorts and a tee shirt.
Don’t get me wrong, though: if the forecasted storm tracks completely to the south or north of us (as sometimes happen), I will be quite pleased. Like I said: I don’t like winter weather, even as I cope with it.
-ET