There’s been a bit of excitement in DC recently caused by all the intense storms moving across the country. Local weathermen have been busy tracking them as they come down from the north, up from the south, and in from the west and the east as they dump huge amounts of snow, shut down roads, close schools and local governments and lead to massive power outages everywhere- that is everywhere but Washington and its surrounding suburbs.
With the election over and the doldrums of winter surrounding us, we seem to be looking for something to get excited about. One would think that the impending sequestration, battle over new gun legislation and all the recent incidents of gun violence would be more than enough to get the collective adrenaline going- but apparently they are not.
This is reflected not only in the amount of coverage and air time that is spent on the weather as opposed to our pressing national challenges, but also in recent polls that measure how concerned folks are about sequestration or how much they are covering the current gun debate. It turns out, not much outside of relatively small groups of people that have been or could be directly affected by the outcomes of these issues.
But the weather is something we can all get excited about. We wait for each broadcast and listen carefully to every update- hoping that the storm line will move slightly towards us, the temperature will stay below freezing- and we will be blessed with a significant quantity of snow that will slow our stress filled lives and allow us to stay home from work, sleep more, have the time to interact lazily with family, friends and neighbors, and spend hours outdoors in a world that is suddenly very white and hushed- absent of all the usual bustle, traffic and noise that have become an all too familiar part of our daily lives.
With March arriving tomorrow, we will have to let go of our hopes for anything big happening this winter. But we can take heart in the long-range forecasts for the upcoming summer that are predicting high heat and an active season for storms. If this doesn’t really do it for you, take heart, the new Farmer’s Almanac will be out in September- so you only have six months to go.
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