While residents of Massachusetts dust off their Long Pig recipes (h/t Dan-o), the Upper Midwest is also looking at a not-insignificant blizzard hitting this weekend:
Winter Storm Orko will spin out of the Rockies later Saturday, and deliver a swath of heavy snow and strong winds to the northern Plains and Upper Midwest Saturday night into Sunday.
[...]
Low pressure will then track northeastward towards the Upper Midwest Saturday night into Sunday, delivering a swath of 6 to 12 inches, with local amounts over one foot, from portions northern/western Nebraska to South Dakota, eastern North Dakota, northern/central Minnesota, and far northwest Wisconsin.
Gusty winds will accompany the snow and reduce visibility, resulting in possible blizzard conditions at times. As a result, travel will be dangerous Saturday night into Sunday and early Monday
Granted, we're not talking two feet of snow here, but even if we were, who really believes that many people within the Boston-NYC-DC megalopolis would give a shit? As it is, for weeks to come in the wake of Nemo I'm expecting to hear and read breathless stories of survival, touching depictions of neighbor-helping-neighbor (as in, "See! Urbanites on the East Coast aren't nearly as jaded and uncaring as we keep telling you they are."), and the tragic consequences of Nature's Fury from all of the usual national media suspects.
BTW, "Orko"? Really? The coast gets a swashbuckling, inventive Vernian sea captain and/or extremely popular and cute clownfish, and we get some sort of gay elf wizard from the Masters of the Universe?
Now we know they're going out of their way to insult us.
Dan Collins on February 9, 2013 at 1:43 pm said:
You'll get Orko, and you'll like it, Flyover Boy!
Starless on February 9, 2013 at 3:12 pm said:
But I don' wanna!!!!!
Lance Boyle on February 9, 2013 at 3:54 pm said:
Naming winter storms… How bored are meterologists that it has come to this? Well, here’s to hoping the next meterological disaster is right around the corner. Ever notice how giddy The Weather Channel people get when weather tragedy comes a knocking? Oi.
Starless on February 9, 2013 at 5:46 pm said:
They couldn't very well leave winter storm naming to the hoi polloi of the Internet, they had to get ahead of it.
"Orko: The thunder god in Basque mythology." Oh, yeah, EVERYBODY knows that one!
jefferson101 on February 9, 2013 at 7:51 pm said:
And, waiting in the wings, Winter Storm Darth Vader will descend upon the Alliance, and make everyone wish that they were on Hoth again, where it was warm.
What is it with the Weather Channel that they now have to name every front that blows across the country? It's a mind boggling thing, actually. And between the time that it clears the Rockies and enters the Appalachians, nobody other than the folks under it care. We know that the media doesn't care about anything that happens in flyover country.
Starless on February 9, 2013 at 10:51 pm said:
The Weather Channel has as much to do with weather as Comedy Central has to do with comedy (or the History Channel has to do with history).