And Now the Weather

By: Larry Gordon

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of reporting to you mostly from sunny and warm South Florida. Reading about and speaking to family and friends in New York and its environs, the conversation at times shifted to how cold it really was in the Northeast.

Our phones and weather sites on some days showed that the temperature, especially in the evenings, hovered at 1 degree. Some said these frozen temperatures were too cold to produce snow. And the odd thing about that is that historically, our biggest and most significant snowstorms in New York usually took place when the temperature was around 30 degrees. So maybe there is such a thing as too cold to snow.

Our original plan was to head back to Florida a few days prior to Purim and then spend the chag with friends down there. But then the other day the meteorologists began prognosticating the possibility of snowfall on Sunday and into Monday right after this coming Shabbos weekend.

I started dreaming about flight delays and cancellations and for those of you who have JFK to Florida on your annual itinerary, we know that these cancellations and delays can be contagious, so it takes planning accordingly. The important thing at this juncture is not to be stuck staring at the Jet Blue airline tracker screen and seeing the word CANCELLED up and down the daily flight list.

Just the other day we decided to get out while we can. That meant switching our flight to Thursday afternoon while it was just cloudy, but at least there was no precipitation in the forecast even though the temperatures were still in the 30s.

Back in our yeshiva days, we hoped and even prayed for snow so that if nothing else, school would be called off for a day or two.

It just might be possible (and I strongly suspect it is) that today’s students are still hoping and praying for snow, which can result in a chain reaction. And that magic involves the local public schools being closed for a day or two, which results in there being no bus service and no way to get to school unless someone can drive you.

Once you’re out of the realm of school and step into the real world, the other types of hazards and annoyances are icy roads, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and of course, long flight delays and those dreaded messages telling you your flight has been cancelled.

Right now, as I write these words, we moved our flight so as to try to avoid that airport quagmire that can easily result in not knowing which is the next flight you’ll be able to get a seat on.

Past experience has illustrated that leaving things as is and then just “winging it” is not always the best way to go. If you’re planning on spending at least part of what remains of winter with family and friends down south for Purim, you want to be as far away from snow shovels as possible. 

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