Jamie Jones: A worrisome warm winter

Published 4:02 am Sunday, February 12, 2012

The snow flurries playfully pirouetted from the gray sky Saturday morning.

Their performance was often cut short by a menacing wind that forced the flakes to the ground much more swiftly than planned. Like flicking water on a hot griddle, the flurries instantly disappeared on the cozy ground.

Meanwhile at The Green Spot grocery store Saturday afternoon, the bread shelves and milk coolers weren’t even close to bare.

Sure, the snowflakes didn’t stick. But this town has been thrown in a panic over less.

The South — and much of the country — has experienced a warmer than normal winter. Whether caused by the effects of global warming, an unusual yearly weather pattern or just happenstance, you haven’t heard many people complaining about daytime temperatures bordering a balmy 70 degrees.

The warm spell has been a boon for those who love the outdoors. Folks whose jobs keep them outside haven’t had to pile on as many layers. And think of the money we’re saving on heating costs.

There’s still an uneasiness in the air over this too-good-to-be-true winter. In the back of our minds, we are convinced Mother Nature is playing a trick. She’s showering us with these pleasant temperatures, but just wait until early spring. That old hag will hang a frigid snap on North Georgia, and she’ll spite us by dumping six inches of snow in mid-March.

If we can just make it to April, it will be nothing but Lowcountry boils and Mai Tais until Halloween.

Blame it on “The Blizzard of ’93.”

On the night of Friday, March 12, 1993, snow began harmlessly falling in Dalton. Then more snow fell. Then more. By the following morning, parts of Dalton were suffocated with almost two feet of snow. Power was out for days. Roads, for the most part, were impassable. Stores were shuttered. Schools closed for almost an entire week. People were caught without bread and milk.

The blizzard nailed states from the southeast to the extreme northeast, causing an estimated $6.6 billion in damage and more than 300 fatalities. “The Storm of the Century” ensured Daltonians would never be caught off guard again.

A framed copy of The Daily Citizen from March 16, 1993, hangs in our newsroom. Since power at the newspaper was out for two days, that was the first edition the staff could produce. The screaming headline, “Dalton digs out,” is the entryway to stories about the damage caused to business, shelters set up throughout town and looting.

Fortunately for me, the blizzard was a minor inconvenience. As a jobless sophomore in high school, I didn’t worry about navigating the snow drifts to get to work. Classes were canceled for five days, so I had no tests to study for or homework to complete. An added bonus was no running water, so I had the perfect excuse for not showering for five consecutive days.

It’s mind-boggling to think this year’s high school senior class didn’t experience the area’s most prolific snowfalls of the 20th century. All they can do is flip through the picture albums while listening to their parents’ war stories of being without electricity for an entire week. The teenagers surely shudder at the thought of no email, Facebook or Twitter for a stint that would seem as long as the Paleozoic era. I can see them now if a major snowstorm knocked out power, huddled in their cars waiting for their phones to charge.

Heck, I would be doing the same thing.

In the almost 19 years since the blizzard that altered our thoughts about winter forever, we’ve been hit with ice storms and fairly heavy snowfall.

Remember January 2011?

I do. The eight inches of snow forced me to walk to work one day.

Now, it seems winter has finally arrived.

Saturday was brutally cold. The wind was relentless. The thermometers barely cracked freezing. The outlook for today isn’t much better. The low is expected to be in the high teens.

But over the next 10 days, there’s no snow in the forecast.

Mother Nature might have a heart after all. Then again, you better stock up on the bread and milk.

Just in case.

Dalton native Jamie Jones is co-city editor of The Daily Citizen.