When I awoke this morning (about twenty-five minutes ago), I awoke to an updated forecast of terror:
... WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON...
A WINTER STORM WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON.
* TIMING... THE WINTRY PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP WEDNESDAY MORNING AND CONTINUE INTO THURSDAY MORNING. THE HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION WILL LIKELY OCCUR WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING.
* SNOW AND SLEET ACCUMULATIONS... FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING WILL RANGE FROM 6 TO 10 INCHES OVER CENTRAL KANSAS... WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE GENERALLY NORTH OF INTERSTATE 70. AMOUNTS OVER SOUTH-CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST KANSAS WILL RANGE FROM 1 TO 5 INCHES... WITH THE LESSER AMOUNTS OVER FAR SOUTHERN KANSAS.
* ICE ACCUMULATIONS... EXCEEDING ONE-QUARTER INCH WILL BE POSSIBLE GENERALLY ALONG AND SOUTH OF THE HIGHWAY 56 CORRIDOR.
Because that makes me feel better, obviously. It also means that my classes will all but be canceled on Thursday already, almost as a given, which I'll have to tell my students today.
Let me give you folks unfamiliar with the area a brief geography lesson. Interstate 70 runs across the state a little more than an hour or so north of me -- it's a little south of the halfway point between here and Daisy's house in Omaha. The Highway 56 corridor is halfway between me and I-70, which means it's about 30-40 miles north of me at the most. The worst ice is supposed to hit along there and south before the snow comes.
Explanation: At best I'm going to get a bunch of shitty ice and up to five inches of snow, and at worst, a bunch of shitty ice and maybe 6-10 inches of snow. My town of Newton is right on that line where it could be just "bad" or it could be "awful." Wichita will more than likely get the lesser end of this stuff, while I'll undoubtedly get more and get it a bit worse since I'm 22 miles north of the city. When the lesser end is still a bunch of ice and snow, however, that's not a great comfort either way.
Daisy will get the brunt of this storm in Omaha; I already checked her forecast and it's a given that they're getting at least six inches of snow there, but she won't have to worry about ice on top of that. I'm hoping she and her mother (who is with her) gets back from her sister's place this afternoon before it hits up there.
I'm not a stranger to shitty winter weather -- I grew up on top of a mountain in West Virginia, as most of you know. It's nothing to get a two-foot snowstorm on top of the mountain when my hometown of Morgantown (20 miles or so to the west, in the foothills) gets 3 or 4 inches. However, out here in Kansas it's a bit of a rarity to have a big storm like this blow through. As mentioned before, the last big snowstorm we had (that lasted longer than 24 hours) was a little more than a foot of snow, and that was in January 2011. We've had isolated snow events of 4-8 inches or so before, but even with those, the temperature has warmed up rapidly afterwards and has melted it all off over the span of a day or two. Big storms that dump a lot of snow and ice on the area don't happen much out here -- the climate and elevation isn't conducive to it for the most part. And, despite the fact that I grew up in West Virginia, I've only driven in bad snow/ice a handful of times -- and only once in the Monte Carlo (a light ice storm two fall semesters ago on my way home from class one night).
This means that I'm already preparing for things -- I have a ton of food in the fridge and pantry, thanks to my weekend shopping and Daisy continually bringing foods down here with her; I also have an unopened can of coffee, and enough cigarettes to get me through at least the weekend, if not longer. The cats have food and litter. After I get home this evening, if the storm does hit as predicted, I won't have to leave the house for anything school-related for a week, since I'll cancel my Thursday classes. I sent an email to my students moments ago saying that if those in workshop group 1 have completed drafts and copies already made, to go ahead and bring them in today for distribution, and we'll discuss the situation more in class. I know that a few students, at least, are already done with their workshop drafts. Whether that means they have copies made yet remains to be seen, but if I can get some in advance and work on them while the snowstorm blazes around me, then I can at least attempt to keep my lesson plans partially on schedule. I also looked ahead in said lesson plans to see if there's anything else I need to print or make copies of within this next week or so for my students so that I can get those made today before I leave campus.
This is also another reason I'm glad I had enough foresight to schedule all of my office hours, Writing Center hour, and visiting writer conference time on Tuesdays instead of on Thursdays. It may suck to do all of it in one day, but at times like this, it's rather worth it. When I get home tonight, I'm sticking the car in the garage and seeing what happens over the course of the following 36 hours or so.
For now, though? It's off to campus to broaden some minds.
No comments:
Post a Comment