Today is Kalispell's first "sticking" snow of the season--sticking, defined as snow that accumulates rather than disappears when it hits the pavement. From the hubbub the weather forcasters/guessers made a month ago, one would believe snow is unheard of in Montana. Last month we were inundated with warnings about a HISTORIC snow storm. These days everything is sensationalized--political news, perceived insults, even weather, but I still find it annoying. After all the historic hysterics, the storm did not even hit here, though it left feet of snow around Glacier Park and east of the mountains. Admittedly, so much snow is unusual for September, even in Montana, so terms like unseasonable, early, record setting are appropriate. But historic? Historic is for things like Lake McDonald Lodge, the flood of 1964, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, not preseason snow.
I believe the weatherpeople used the term "historic" just to make a fairly dull, and often inaccurate, part of the news draw attention. Especially from the national weather channels who would otherwise scarcely notice a snowstorm in Montana. The solution to news channels sensationalizing the mundane, is not for the weather channel to jump on the bandwagon. It is bad enough when a forecast of normal winter weather is now deemed an "advisory". A storm (also normal winter weather) is announced as an "alert". A blizzard that wouldn't even have cancelled school when I was growing up (and most kids walked to school), is now "emergency travel only". This is the reason many people don't take evacuation orders seriously before a __________________ (insert weather disaster here). The inevitable result of histrionic inundation is historic indifference.
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