The Blizzard of 2015 - What Happened?

The Blizzard of 2015!

I am sure that most of you awoke early this morning, went to the window and peered out and thought to yourself, "You closed our schools, shut the subways, buses and bridges and emptied the streets for this? Where's my 2 feet of snow? What happened to the %$#$%& Blizzard?"

Let me state at the outset that any criticism of the Mayor for overreacting to this storm is, in my opinion, unjustified.  The Mayor did what he is paid to do...make a decision based on the best informaion avaioable that is in the best interest of all New Yorkers.

Additionally, before any of you decide to go all "commando" on the National Weather Service, TV and Radio meteorologists, reporters, and anyone else who only yesterday were describing this nor'easter as a storm of "epic and historical" proportions keep in mind that the same computer forecast models that correctly predicted Super Storm Sandy's path of destruction through our area back in 2012 were also accurately showing this particular storm to be a shaping up as a "winter whopper" with one small exception.

As the storm intensified into a nor'easter, it established itself slightly different than the computer models were predicting and in such a way that kept the heavy bands of snow and real extreme winds from reaching our area. Unfortunately our neighbors out east on Long Island and further up the coast were not as fortunate and they did catch the brunt this large, but not historic, storm.

This "whoopsie" between the computer models and the actual storm turned out to be a blessing for all of us here in Broad Channel.  Consider the following.

Instead of getting 2-3 feet of snow we will probably only see about 8 to10 inches by day's end and that snow is the light powdery kind which is easy to shovel. 

It won't take you 5 hours to dig out your car after being plowed in on Cross Bay Boulevard. 

We did not experience prolonged and seriously strong winds which tend to cause expensive damage, as well as utility and power outages.

The roads were all closed last night at 11 pm but they were reopened this morning at 7:30 am and guess what? They are plowed, clean and passable!  West 12th Road was plowed at least 6 times overnight whether we needed it or not.  A plow also came through at 2 am during the tidal street flooding which accompanied the high tide. Ever watch a plow simply moving water around? Interesting to say the least.

The subways, buses and bridges were all closed overnight forcing all of us to remain home and spend time with our families.  Is that such a bad thing?

As far as closing the schools is concerned, we should all be happy that the Mayor and the School Chancellor finally made a timely decision, based on information at hand, far enough in advance to allow parents to make accommodations for their children. Usually we have to wait until 5 am on the morning of a storm to find out if there will be classes.

Everyone was out shopping the day before the storm which was good for the local economy.

Everyone was off the streets and home the night of the storm which was good for Mayor de Blasio's "Vision Zero" program and the city wide crime rates.