Snow, snow and more snow

Winter has truly arrived in NE Ohio. We've been getting snow every day with snow in the forecast every single day this week. Between 1 and 3 inches is forecast to fall every day, meaning that by week's end, we could be truly buried in a lot of snow. What we are getting is basically lake effect snow, cold Canadian air that comes over a warmer Lake Erie, picks up moisture and then dumps it on NE Ohio, one of the things we have to live with here in the Great Lakes part of the country. It's pretty typical this time of year until the lake freezes, if, indeed, it ever does, and even then, we still get lake effect snow, just not as bad as when the lake is still unfrozen. It makes for treacherous driving conditions and I truly hate being out in it. You never know if you'll hit a patch of black ice or a slippery spot where light snow has fallen just enough to make things slick. Sure, the salt trucks try to plow and clear the roads, but there is only so much can be done when lake effect snow keeps falling relentlessly. The temperatures outside are also quite frigid this time of year, as that cold Canadian air brings an arctic blast with it. I'm not really fond of winter myself because I weary of digging my car out of snow and then gritting my teeth for a 15 mile commute each day to work worrying about some yahoo driving while texting or yakking on his or her cell phone and not paying attention to the road conditions. I see this as well on my evening commute home. It flat out drives me crazy and there are those little moments of road rage where I almost want some fancy, almost science fiction-y James Bond cars with the front end torpedoes that I could use to blast idiots who are driving poorly off the road. Fortunately, moments like these are the exception rather than the rule, but still, I figure if you live in this part of the country and have for a good long time now, you ought to know how to drive in inclement weather. What really makes me nervous is being behind some driver on the freeway in a snowstorm who is sporting Florida plates and who probably is more used to driving in tropical weather conditions as opposed to a full blown NE Ohio lake effect snowfall. Either that, or they are some snowbird getting a late start to their southern destination and who forgot to leave before the snowfall. Either way, it amazes me to see how many people just lack a clue as to how to drive carefully in bad weather conditions, which is something inherent in this part of the country. You live here, you get used to it and learn coping mechanisms. Drive according to the weather conditions, period. But just because it's been snowing is no reason to crawl at 20 mph over clear and salted roads. Sure, there's always that possibility of black ice, but still......some people take it too slow and become more dangerous than they should. At any rate, a good rule of thumb is to give yourself extra time during this season to get where you need to go and drive carefully! It is, after all, winter in NE Ohio, and will be for the next several months. And the snow machine is blowing off of Lake Erie for the immediate future, but too late to give us a White Christmas, unfortunately. Wednesday is the 12th and final day of Christmas, the Epiphany, so at least we will have had snow for part of the holiday season this year.