Althouse: "The freak winter storm that crashed into the tropical storm from the Atlantic brought as much of two feet of snow to Appalachian states..."

October 30, 2012

"The freak winter storm that crashed into the tropical storm from the Atlantic brought as much of two feet of snow to Appalachian states..."

"... spreading blizzard or near-blizzard conditions over parts of Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina," including "what may well be a record amount of heavy, wet snow in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park."

74 comments:

Sorun said...: Oh, how lovely. It looks like Christmas.; 10/30/12, 1:58 PM
MadisonMan said...: Do they need the moisture there? No. Do they want the snow? This early? Probably not.; 10/30/12, 2:02 PM
Anonymous said...: I have a summer place in Sylva, North Carolina (about 45 minutes southwst of Asheville) and my year round neighbors said there was only a dusting that melted when the sun came up. Expecting real snow tonight.; 10/30/12, 2:03 PM
David said...: Obama is on the tube at the Red Cross.

Boring. Wordy. Repetitive Nothing useful. Going on and on and on and on.

Bleah.; 10/30/12, 2:04 PM
edutcher said...: Ho, ho, ho.

Maybe Barry can look Presidential up in hillbilly country.

Does he ski?

Interesting, however, how the Romster turns his campaign bus into a disaster relief van and his rallies into exhortations to people to go out and help their neighbors.

He didn't even blame the storm on Choom or criticize him for allowing the seas to rise.; 10/30/12, 2:06 PM
Anonymous said...: The SANDY hero is: POTUS Obama. He will reap the benefits. Every-one loves him for his work on this hurricane: Christie from NJ, NYT Editorial board, Politico's Maggie and Alex.

Above all: The voters from VA and OH.

The election is over. Today was the result.; 10/30/12, 2:09 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: If the winter storm was a freak, shouldn't it get its own day during diversity week?; 10/30/12, 2:09 PM
traditionalguy said...: Global cooling is upon us. The temps in the National Park are seldom this cold (low of 29) until December.

We are going to the Bryson City area Thursday night through Sunday. I hope tonight's winds leave some leaf color on the trees.; 10/30/12, 2:11 PM
pm317 said...: This is what his Chicago minions are saying; plaster this far and wide:

Heard LaBolt is telling them all “We’re gonna shove this storm right up Romney’s ass.”

Play this loudly for the people who lost their homes to floods and fires in NJ and NYC.; 10/30/12, 2:13 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Somehow I feel better knowing that AP is now back on board with Obama.; 10/30/12, 2:13 PM
Anonymous said...: Wow, just take a look at all that "global warming". /sarc; 10/30/12, 2:16 PM
Anonymous said...: @Tradguy - Bryson City is the next town down from me west towards the Nantahala River. reports are that "All the leaves are down and the sky is grey" (liberties with John Phillips' lyrics.; 10/30/12, 2:16 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/30/12, 2:17 PM
DADvocate said...: Here's the webcam at Purchase Knob on the North Carolina side of the Smokys.

http://www.nature.nps.gov/air/WebCams/parks/grsmpkcam/grsmpkcam.cfm; 10/30/12, 2:18 PM
Anonymous said...: @Ms Althouse - Any way that you might have a spell check app added for the comments? My spelling is ok but my mid 20th century typing class skills suck.; 10/30/12, 2:19 PM
DADvocate said...: Bryson City is the next town down from me west towards the Nantahala River.

I used to kayak the Nantahala a couple of times a year when I lived in Knoxville. A relatively easy run, but extremely beautiful. Is whitewater paddling where you get the name "Surfed"?; 10/30/12, 2:21 PM
SteveR said...: AP: Stop gawking at Stephanie and get on the phone. OH and VA can slip away with one Biden Gaffe (Probability 90% +) The future of the dependent class depends on you.; 10/30/12, 2:22 PM
gadfly said...: Obama is damned if he does and damned if he does not. The American people expect that all will be fixed by the government when natural disasters strike.

Anything less than A+ performance affecting every voting citizen in America is a black (s'cuse my French) mark - an F grade.

Ba-Bye, Barry!; 10/30/12, 2:22 PM
Lyssa said...: How strange. I'm not far away, in Knoxville (TN), and it is unusually cold for this time of year (45-ish, down from the unusually warm upper 70's last week - falls and springs here have no real normal) and dismal, but nothing that is even the slightest bit suggestive of snow.; 10/30/12, 2:26 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: "[A]nd my radiator breaks and the hotel room is absolutely freezing, and I'm ashamed, y'know, because she is going to come into a cold room, so I go into the bathroom and I turn on the hot water in the shower, which is an old Brooklyn trick to heat the apartment, and hot water comes down and billows of steam come into the living room. And ice-cold air is seeping in under the windowsill and the two fronts meet in the living room, and it starts to rain in my hotel room. I'm standing there in the rain, and I did not do well with the girl."

-- from Woody Allen - Standup Comic ("European Trip"); 10/30/12, 2:35 PM
ricpic said...: I have as much sympathy for the Johnny Rebs in West Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee suffering a freak storm in October as they have for us Billie Yanks in New York and New England shoveling out from under the fifteenth heavy snow of the season in February -- exactly none.; 10/30/12, 2:35 PM
Known Unknown said...: A big storm requires big government

NYT - All the news that's predictable.; 10/30/12, 2:35 PM
Anonymous said...: VICTORY IN OUR HANDS.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/10/28/nyregion/hurricane-sandy.html#43921f99a

POTUS Obama every-where. YES. YES.

Voters are so lame, lazy, short-term memory. They will forget Benghazi. YES!

The trip from FL to DC on Sun. was a STROKE OF GENIUS.

IT turns out: It was the decision of Stephanie Cutter.

SHe will be the COS (chief of staff) in the 2nd term.

The bleeding stops. Victory is in our hands.; 10/30/12, 2:35 PM
Anonymous said...: Obama gets:

A PLUS PLUS (A++), the highest grade on his response to Sandy.

We stopped the Romney momentum.

IT is beginning to look like Christmas!; 10/30/12, 2:37 PM
Anonymous said...: @Dadvocate - No/Yes. I travelled the world surfing the best waves throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's. Semi-retired from it now. Getting old. Love whitewater kyaking the Nantahahla(Land of the noon day sun),the Ocoee and the Chatooga in North, Ga. (Deliverance River). Anything that involves gravity and water is good to go for me. Sailing too...; 10/30/12, 2:38 PM
Known Unknown said...: From the NYT Op-Ed.

"Many don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions, which this week includes living on the East Coast."

Christ on a crouton, these people are lousy at reasoning.; 10/30/12, 2:39 PM
David said...: Hell of a storm. I was wrong in calling it an incipient dud. But people were pretty well prepared, from government on down. Most of the response is individual and local. The government isn't going to clean out all the basements and rebuild the flooded homes.

Do get ready for a call for increases in flood insurance limits, and even requirements that private insurers cover floods. Federal flood insurance is going to be inadequate for many people.; 10/30/12, 2:50 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: With all due respect to people inconvenienced or even harmed by the snow, it sure comes in handy in terms of lessening or preventing drought.; 10/30/12, 3:01 PM
edutcher said...: AP notwithstanding, it looks like the Establishment Media is going to use Sandy as their excuse when Choom loses.; 10/30/12, 3:18 PM
DADvocate said...: Surfed - you're not my cousin's son, Kip, are you? My cousin, Tim, lives/lived in Jacksonville, FLA and has a rental supply place. A few years back he bought a place in that area of Norh Carolina for retirement/vacation.; 10/30/12, 3:18 PM
DADvocate said...: My cousin's son was a professional surfer for a while.; 10/30/12, 3:19 PM
Sam L. said...: My, the trools are out in forces of one.; 10/30/12, 3:21 PM
Alex said...: tradguy - climate scientists don't say that the winter is necessarily going to be warmer but that climate change will cause these massive events more frequently. All this is more proof that AGW is causing it.; 10/30/12, 3:24 PM
Alex said...: Ali Karim aka America's Politico?; 10/30/12, 3:27 PM
DADvocate said...: Alex - this meteorologist, who's the son of a meteorologist, says you're wrong.; 10/30/12, 3:36 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: ricpic said...

I have as much sympathy for the Johnny Rebs in West Virginia...

This is quibbling, I know, but West Virginia was created as a state in 1863 when its residents voted to secede from secessionist Virginia. They were decidedly Union in sympathies back then.; 10/30/12, 3:36 PM
Alex said...: Insurance companies say otherwise; 10/30/12, 3:38 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: ricpic said...

I have as much sympathy for the Johnny Rebs in West Virginia...

This is quibbling, I know, but West Virginia was created as a state in 1863 when its residents voted to secede from secessionist Virginia. They were decidedly Union in sympathies back then.; 10/30/12, 3:43 PM
DADvocate said...: Insurance companies, gimme a break. Actuary or meteorologist? Who's the denier now?; 10/30/12, 3:44 PM
rhhardin said...: Floods aren't insurable events. All the policies go bad at once.; 10/30/12, 3:52 PM
chickelit said...: Alex writes: Insurance companies say otherwise

But notice it's a German company writing that.

Also, I found it odd that they implied that adverse effects are localized more in North America (where the worst climate sins occur). The most egregious climate offenders are on the West coast where mass transportation is under-utilized. Also, the Midwest has lots of families with SUV's...shouldn't they be punished the worst?; 10/30/12, 4:00 PM
chickelit said...: edutcher said...
AP notwithstanding, it looks like the Establishment Media is going to use Sandy as their excuse when Choom loses.

They might be willing and able to spin the popular vote in that political maelström, but how will they explain the Electoral College?; 10/30/12, 4:06 PM
Seeing Red said...: --tradguy - climate scientists don't say that the winter is necessarily going to be warmer but that climate change will cause these massive events more frequently. All this is more proof that AGW is causing it.--

Isn't that the line they've been pushing for years?

And when it doesn't happen......

Move away from coastal areas.; 10/30/12, 4:12 PM
Anonymous said...: Politico has announced that tomorrow is going to be all day live-streaming of Obama visits to Sandy's trail.

YES! Yes! yes!

We got Romney all boxed in. NYT loves. NPR loves. All voters in America will love us.

We will leave no one behind from Sandy.

We got it right. Thanks to Stephanie was suggesting that we leave FL on Sun for DC over AF-One.

What a genius move! Check-mate to Romney.

Forget you, Benghazi!; 10/30/12, 4:13 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: What kind of a person gets excited about the American people not caring that their government abandoned four American citizens, including an ambassador, leaving them to fend for themselves and be killed?

Where you from Ali Karim Bey?; 10/30/12, 4:30 PM
Anonymous said...: R. Chatt: I am from where-ever people want me to be. Right now, NYT, NPR, PBS, etc. all want me to be any-one who is rescued by the govt. in the path of Sandy. We who are rescued love the POTUS. We love him! He will be in our thoughts from now till Sun. No one will remember Benghazi. That's my point. We are Americans. We have short-term memory. We base our decisions on what the media (esp. NYT) tell us. They say: There is no such thing as Benghazi. They will tell us (since yesterday) that the POTUS is the best in helping Sandy. He gets A++. I just follow the press. They decide for me. Who decides for you? Just do as I do: Follow the NYT. Let them make your decision. Have a easy life that way.; 10/30/12, 4:35 PM
Rabel said...: I'd like to join Tyrone in quibbling about ricpic's characterization of West Virginian's as Johnny Rebs.

We don't claim 'em. They're all yours, Yank. But good luck with the snow to you and them.; 10/30/12, 4:36 PM
chickelit said...: R Chatt asks: Where you from Ali Karim Bey?

I think Ali Karim Bey (who someone noted has been around the block a couple times on internet blogs) is trying (and failing) to add "levity" to discussions. But you can't tell him/her that because...well you know what they say about those people: You can always tell them but you can't tell them much.; 10/30/12, 4:39 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: R. Chatt, relax. He's goofing on the Donks. He's been doing it for years.; 10/30/12, 4:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Michael Moore has shared our strategy as part of his new ad. You can view it on Politico. Moore is a genius.

His plan is as follows:

We will use Sandy to C***-P**** Benghazi. The press will give us all the Photo-OP tomorrow through Sun. Live coverage on WH help on Sandy's wake. On Tues. no one will remember Libya or even think of it as a place on earth. OUr voters do as they are told. They will vote for us automatically, just like Field of Dreams movie.

Q.E.D.; 10/30/12, 4:42 PM
Portia said...: "
I think Ali Karim Bey (who someone noted has been around the block a couple times on internet blogs) is trying (and failing) to add "levity" to discussions. "

Au contraire, I think he does.; 10/30/12, 4:50 PM
chickelit said...: Au contraire, I think he does.

YMMV Humor is very subjective. Lots of people were amused by Crack EmCee too.; 10/30/12, 4:57 PM
Wince said...: If the electric power aint on by Tues, and there's grumbling, who do you think the media-Obama-industrial complex will blame?

The much-touted and "indispensable" FEMA under Obama?

Or the states?; 10/30/12, 4:58 PM
AllenS said...: They keep calling this storm the Frankenstorm. This looks like the first time ever, in the history of storm naming, that a destructive, killer of citizens, would be named after a Minnesota state senator, Al Franken.

Who knew?; 10/30/12, 5:00 PM
Anonymous said...: NYT is C***-P**** Benghazi with all good stories, every-hour, every-day, till Tues.

YES! We win. It is beginning to look like Christmas.

All we need is VA and OH, and we have got Romney.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/magazine/still-waiting-for-the-narrator-in-chief.html

NYT rules! NYT decides!; 10/30/12, 5:05 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/30/12, 5:06 PM
Tim said...: So happy not to live in snow country.

Earthquakes are a different matter; but like much of life, they come at you when you least expect them.; 10/30/12, 5:09 PM
Wince said...: Off topic, but Michael Totten posts at Instapundit...DAILY LIFE IN ISLAMIST NORTHERN MALI:

...One of the men, holding his weapon at the ready, inspects the buses by walking down the aisle and checking to make sure everyone is in compliance with the Islamists’ rules: Are women and men sitting in separate areas? Are the women wearing the hijab? And are the men wearing trousers that reach to their ankles, the kind of trousers that radical Muslims believe the Prophet favored? They are now obligatory in Gao.

The Prophet... Althouse?; 10/30/12, 5:22 PM
kcom said...: "A Big Storm Requires Big Government"

And apparently deciding how big a drink to buy with your hamburger requires big government, too.

Wow, just about anything can require big government. We're saved!; 10/30/12, 5:30 PM
coketown said...: No president has ever won the electoral votes of a state below the Mason-Dixon line that received more than 3" of snow before election day.

I just made that up, but it's fun to add to the list of "things that predict whether a president will be re-elected." You know. Re-elected with employment over 7.6%; re-elected with an approval under 50%. I'm sure if I posted it to Twitter it would be repeated as fact without resistance.; 10/30/12, 5:39 PM
D. B. Light said...: Heavy snowfall -- definitely proof of global warming!; 10/30/12, 5:56 PM
Anonymous said...: @DADvocate - Not me. Professionally I'm an inner city school teacher for refugees and Immigrants. We're waiting for the next levee being Coptic Christians. My classroom looks like the United Nations. And the kids all really get along. It's pretty amazing.; 10/30/12, 6:09 PM
garage mahal said...: So what does everyone think of the budding bromance between Chris Christie and Barack Obama? Think there's something there and not just a quick flirt? You could just feel it in the air today when Christie was gushing about Obama and his of leadership in this crisis.; 10/30/12, 6:14 PM
ken in tx said...: Hey rip-tic, West Virginia was founded by people who refused to join the Confederacy. Half of Tennessee and Northern Alabama as well. They were called Tories of the hills by other Southerners. Eastern Tennessee was occupied by the Confederate Army because it did not want to be Confederate. When Alabama seceded, Winston County seceded from Alabama and declared itself to be the Free State of Winston County. Know your history.

A retired history teacher.; 10/30/12, 6:27 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: EDH,
Seriously? They'll blame Bush or Romney, of course.; 10/30/12, 6:32 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: For the power being out, that is. But yeah, probably for the Sharia Law and the wacko Muzzies too.; 10/30/12, 6:34 PM
Mike Smith said...: Meteorologists did an incredible job with the forecasts for Sandy.

http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2012/10/this-was-their-finest-hour.html?spref=fb; 10/30/12, 6:34 PM
chickelit said...: garage mahal said...
So what does everyone think of the budding bromance between Chris Christie and Barack Obama?

Leave to garage to (1) notice this and (2) put it in those terms.; 10/30/12, 6:37 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Hawaii isn't that far from New Jersey. They can visit on holidays.; 10/30/12, 6:40 PM
DADvocate said...: Surfed - sounds like you do some cool stuff (teaching, etc, that is).

It seemed awfully coincidental that some of your activities were so similar to my relatives in the same ares. But, coincidences do happen.; 10/30/12, 7:15 PM
MadisonMan said...: I do not think this was forecasters' finest hour will be said in the future about these predictions because that presupposes forecasts will not keep improving, and I think they will keep improving.

As to how this could be tied to Climate Change: Before this storm, there was a monster storm across central Canada that laid down a very nice front in its wake. The storm that then absorbed Sandy, and moved it inland, interacted with that left-over frontal zone. The interesting question is: How was that storm influenced by the dearth of ice in the Arctic.

As you might imagine, it's enormously hard to discern effects in this.; 10/30/12, 7:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Wasn't Ali Karim Bey bragging about voting for Romney this past weekend?; 10/30/12, 8:04 PM
Astro said...: ricpic said...I have as much sympathy for the Johnny Rebs in West Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee suffering a freak storm in October as they have for us Billie Yanks in New York and New England shoveling out from under the fifteenth heavy snow of the season in February -- exactly none.

Wow. I've lived in the South for over 30 years and I've never heard the kind of angry, North-South prejudice I sense in this comment. 'Johnny Rebs'? Really? Who even uses that term anymore.; 10/30/12, 8:08 PM
Anonymous said...: You need a new Sandy thread for commenters who have been off-line for the last few days. We still have no power, but everyone is safe. Here's a shot of one of the trees that fell in my front yard - would have destroyed the house if it had fallen 90 degrees north.; 10/31/12, 7:38 AM