Winter Storm

For a long time after I awoke, I lay in darkness and listened to sleet clinking on the windowpane above the bed’s headboard. I knew sleep was out of the question for the remainder of the night, so at 4 AM I got out of bed and looked outside. The window awnings were growing icicles. I sat down at my computer and checked the weather radar. It looked like a child’s coloring book, with different colors for rain, sleet, and snow. The worst of the storm was yet to come. Ice was accumulating on my sidewalk and on the street. Before the morning is over, cars and roads and tree limbs will be glazed in ice. There will be numerous automobile accidents around town and on the highways. Some tree limbs may come down, taking power lines with them. Some schools will open late; some won’t open at all. It’s a good day to be inside.

A few hours later, a gray sky dawned on central Virginia’s wintry landscape. Every blade of grass, every leaf, is encased in its own cocoon of ice. And yet, as winter storms go, this first one of the new year is not a bad one. It won’t knock out power for days. It will breeze into town, hang around for a few hours, and move on. It will leave few traces it was here, except for icicles, bent sheet metal on unlucky automobiles, and perhaps a few scrapes and bruises from falls on icy pavement.

The fact that this will be a relatively mild event does not stop local TV meteorologists from preempting network programming in order to drone on endlessly about dangerous driving conditions, nor will it deter reporters from going on the roads to get videotape of traffic and – if they’re lucky – an accident to show their viewers. I have to ask: do we really need talking heads on TV to tell us it’s icy out there? Won’t finding our cars covered in ice be a tip-off? Don’t people know icy roads may be slippery? Do we need to be told to be careful? It seems kind of … patronizing. I half expect to hear this over the radio some cold morning: “All right campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ‘cause it’s cold out there!” * But, I suppose they mean well.