I venture across our viewing area with Storm Chaser 7 for "Neighborhood Weather" during Good Morning Washington, and I have run into many generous and genuinely kind people . The type of folks you want to surround yourself with on a daily basis. The other morning in Calvert County was no exception, and as a matter of fact, our whole crew was surprised at the local outreach.
The freezing rain from the previous day came to an end, but we knew that a few snow showers were likely on the backside of the storm associated with the cold front. This happened to fall across lower, southern Maryland including St. Mary's and Calvert Counties early Valentine's Day morning (before sunrise). Even though it wasn't a big deal (1-2 inches), it was something different than the rest of the region, it caused delays and closures, and we had the enough resources/crew members, so we wanted to be there with Storm Chaser 7. Snow accumulations varied significantly from one end of the Calvert County to another with no accumulation near Dunkirk and nearly 2 inches near Lusby and Solomons.
The crew and I set out for an unknown location in Calvert County, and we made it as far south as we could within our time frame. We ended up in Prince Frederick along Hwy. 4 and Stoakley Rd. Just a dusting was on the ground there, but it was as far as we could go before our deadline, so we set-up and went on-air. Throughout the morning not only myself, but the two other crew members were astonished by the attitude of the people in the area. Folks were coming out of the woodwork to say, "hi" and "thanks for coming down here," etc etc. Some folks, who were just driving through, dropped by to give a report of the snow and roads further south where it was worse. One pleasant couple even brought small Valentine's Day gifts. Vanessa, our satellite truck operator, was particularly fond of the chocolates.
To make a long story short. Thank you for making it easier for us to roll out of bed at 2:30AM as your kindness along with others from the past is always remembered and contagious from us to viewers. We hope to make it to Prince Frederick and beyond again in the future.
What is going on with the people in the Metro area? Always complaining about the winter weather, when winter hasn't even begun. We barely had any snow to speak of and the temperatures have been moderate all winter, every winter for the past 12 years, except for 2001-2002. Every time I watch the weather report on the evening news, someone's always complaining about the cold, come on. The last real storm we had was back in January 1996. That storm brought us four feet of snow. I always hear about an arctic outbreak behind a cold front which drops the temperature from 50 degrees to 40. Not very cold what-so-ever. Everyone's been so used to this Fall weather in Winter that they've forgotten what Winter is actually suppose to feel like. We have one inch of snow and it's considered a crippling winter storm. People out west and in the northeast are laughing at us at how we react to these so-called storms. Maybe everyone needs a dose of reality, a few blizzards to balance this warm period.
Thank you.
