The Great Fizzle of 2013

Earlier this month, the Blizzard of 2013, now the Fizzle of 2013. Apparently there will be no big snowstorm this weekend, at least nothing resembling the heavy-wet-snow-with-power-outages event that forecasters were predicting even a few days ago. Current computer models are showing that the warm, wet front moving up the coast from the Gulf will not be intersecting in any major way with the cold/storm front from the west, leaving us with rain, not snow, later today across almost all of New England. The rain is expected to turn to snow tonight, but we are likely to get more like 2-4 inches, not 6-9 inches. And when you're talking about heavy wet snow, that's a big difference. Of course, to be fair to the professionals (and amateurs like us who pass along their information!), all along we've been clear that things could change significantly as we got closer to the weekend. From storms that "come out of nowhere" to storms that never materialize, part of what makes weather watching interesting is the unpredictable nature of nature. And in this case, digging out of a foot of heavy wet snow (not to mention attendant power outages and downed trees) is not something I'm going to miss in the least. But before you get too comfortable with that assessment, knock on wood, spit into the wind, or do whatever else you can to make sure the current forecast actually sticks!