Trust me I am not Suffering

I live in the mountains of northern New Mexico not Siberia.  Yes, we get snow. But the last totally paralyzing storm was 2006. We got 6 feet in three days. Things came to a stand still for about four days. And that was basically because all the snow clearing equipment in our area was pulled out for the plains. They got it worse just like they did on this storm.

A friend just posted a story about a couple heading to Angel Fire to ski who got buried in snow outside Springer. Springer, NM is in the plains where snow is compounded with blizzard force winds and total whiteouts. They obviously were under the misconception that their SUV would get them through the closed roads. They were wrong. I blame the commercials. Pay enough for your vehicle and/or tires and you are suppose to be able to make it through Noah's flood. Wrong.

Most of us that live in this rarefied atmosphere know when to stay home and hunker down and when we can make it through. I have lived in New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas City, Missouri. The latter may have had the worst winter weather to drive through - or at least driving from Denver to Kansas City across the plains of Kansas - was the worst.  That particular snow storm one Christmas was rather bad but I hung in between a couple tractor trailer rigs and made it.

And there was that year when the rain in Kentucky (I was living in North Carolina) suddenly at the Mississippi River changed to wet, heavy snow. Not a room in the Inn or any Inn in St Louis was available but the hotels were allowing travelers (again at Christmas) to hang out in lobbies until the roads opened up. The roads, btw, are closed more often not because of snow depth but wrecks or visibility issues. SUV's, snow tires, and OnStar are not helpful with any of that.

Smarts are your best weapon. Check road conditions before heading out. Have a full box of emergency gear in the car (btw it probably should be where you can reach it and that might not be the trunk), and don't be in a hurry. When in doubt stay put.

And the weather channel might not be your best source of information. Every state has a DOT hotline or website with more current information than weather.com. The last snow storm was not that big of an event here. And the current storm is a total fizzle.

And I would rather put up with the worst snow storms than hurricanes, tornadoes or even triple digit heat. I choose to live here because it has none of that and no fleas or ticks or centipedes. It has clean air, and no light pollution and wonderful silence broken only by the howl of a coyote or bugle of an elk.