What's with the blizzard hype?

It is Minnesota, after all. In December. The fact that it is supposed to snow should hardly be excessively newsworthy. Yet it seems that warnings of the impending storm are blizzarding all around us. Here is my take on the hype.

By mckmama

December 23, 2009 at 8:00PM

If I didn't know better, I would think that 17 feet of snow had been forecast to fall on the Twin Cities area in the next few days. But I do know better. Truth be told, we're only expected to get a foot or two. But with the buzz that is busying the media today, it can be hard to think straight, navigating through all that hype.
It's snow, people. In Minnesota. In December.
I have been out and about this morning, hitting a few coffee shops and other assorted establishments. When foreboding about the impending storm isn't pouring out of the radio, it's on the television. And when there are media free moments between patrons and shopkeepers around town, the blizzard is the topic I hear coming up the most in their dialogue.
Maybe it's just that the weather is so easy to talk about. There are no feelings involved, no deep disclosures required. Without having to bare one's soul, a person can connect with another over the mere mention of what the thermometer reads or which way the wind is blowing.
If I were being honest with myself, I like idle chit chat sometimes, too. I find nothing wrong with complimenting a stranger on her delightful necklace and having a mini discussion about where she got it. So conversing about the forecasted blizzard with folks I run into at the gas station isn't something I should get my snowpants in a bunch over. Indeed, the blizzard hype is giving me something to blog about today, and for that I am thankful. And I am not immune. Just this morning, out of pure compulsion and the desire to make small talk, I asked a lady who was walking into a salon right in front of me if she "was ready for the blizzard."
I don't even know why I said that much less what that means. What does it take to "get ready" for a blizzard, anyway? Heaven forbid if we Minnesotans don't already have shovels and gloves. Are we supposed to get Y2K ready again? For goodness sake, it's around a foot of snow that we'll be getting. It won't exactly cover our homes to the rooftops.
Perhaps what I find fascinating, if not mildly irritating, is the way the media hypes normal weather patterns as if they should somehow be surprising to us. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist (but you can be sure I won't touch global warming with a ten foot pole, at least not today), I'll admit that I am all too often getting the feeling that the media, and even our government, likes to dramatize things as a method of having something to report and of making us feel helpless, like we need them...respectively, of course.
But the facts are the facts. We live in the midwest, not south of the border. It snows here in the winter. Sometimes a lot. For news channels to let us know that snow is coming so we can adjust our Christmas plans accordingly? Superb! Report that the airport is experiencing marked delays? Helpful! But reporting over and over and over with much drama and anticipation about the ominous blizzard that will hit us at any moment, urging us to "brace ourselves for the snow," just seems so redundant, unnecessary and over the top.
Now if it were July and a dumping of snow was around the corner, I would be the first person to jump on that newsworthy bandwagon. Or if this was southern California where few flakes fly each year as it is. But it's not and it's not. Since when is getting a ton of snow in the middle of December in Minnesota newsworthy!? Isn't that the definition of Minnesota winters to begin with? It's like saying, "The lakes have frozen completely solid here in Minnesota! You have got to come see this! It is simply unbelievable." Unless you just fell off the turnip truck yesterday and found yourself stranded in Minnesota on a snowhill, that lakes freeze over does not surprise you.
So I will not fall prey to the blizzard hype. I will not let it raise my blood pressure. See, I live in Minnesota. I already know how to drive carefully or avoid commuting completely if conditions are too treacherous. I don't need the news to be my parent. And after all, Christmas will come on Friday either way and our shovel is sitting in our garage, at the ready. It needs no dusting off or preheating. Get ready for the blizzard? I already have! All the hype is, frankly, uncalled for.
In all honesty, I'm excited about the snow. Our children will love it. Christmas music sounds so much more beautiful when played with a backdrop of falling white. Of course, travel will be tricker and take longer than if there were no snow. But I am able to stay aware of the concept that it is winter, after all. And what better holiday to have mounds of the white stuff heaped upon us than Christmas! As we travel to my children's grandma's house tomorrow, I am fully aware that I may be singing a different tune. But here's to hoping that I can enjoy that moment. Whether it be slow driving on unplowed back roads during which time my husband, our four children and I sing Christmas carols to while away the hours or even being snowed in at home, unable to leave until a few days from now, we will make the most of it. So if we can't see grandma until next weekend, or even at Easter, the presents will still be as wonderful, the hot cocoa still as warm, the time with family still as precious, even if it is not in the way, at the location or on the date we had planned.
Christmas cheer comes from our hearts anyway, and no blizzard is going to dampen my spirits, no matter how furiously it is hyped. I say, bring on the snow!

about the writer

about the writer

mckmama