LOOKING BEYOND THE FOREST WE SEE...?

"Trees and Cliffs of Eagle Peak" by Ansel Adams
...A somewhat misty but intriguing view of what is to come over the next 7-10 days. My family taught me the value of holistic thinking...that is, "seeing the forest through the trees" and now we take that one step further. We're certain of what's in front of us: A serene landscape, even if frozen and bitter. The questions are: (1) Will this turn into a 6-day weekend for some? (2) How will the current snow day tally affect the end of the school year? And, (3) Are there any more storms in our near future? The answers to both remain elusive, and will be subject to much speculation over the next few days. This much of which I can be sure: Nothing is certain. How's that for a professional-level response to perfectly reasonable questions? So let's get your input on these pressing issues:
(1) For those of you in schools which have been closed several days now, who among you believe that local political and economic issues will be great enough to offset safety concerns to reopen for just one day in advance of a 3-day weekend? This is not to say that I believe re-opening schools on Friday is a bad idea, I am simply interested in your viewpoint. Personally, I'd be perfectly fine with school reopening as my students and I have lots of vegetable and flower seedlings to transplant. If you're new to the site, a refresher on our purely speculative "hidden reasons" for schools being open or closed are (in no particular order):
A. Safety; B. Scientific Evidence; C. Economics; D. Politics and Perception; E. Historical Trends
(2) Ahh, June. The month has so many meanings for different people. For me, I enjoy it not because school ends for the summer, but rather that the glorious time period from June 21 to about July 1 there is maximum daylight, enabling me to go full blast in my garden. It is also generally pleasant and warm. I can sleep in until 6:00 AM then go right outside to work on the plants in the same shorts and tshirt I wore to bed, really. I know, that's an unnecessary visual, sorry. However, many others think of only ONE thing when you say "June." They say: "Freedom!"
I have heard from sources I trust that some county schools are tabulating makeup time according to how many hours are missed. By that method, for example, Baltimore County has missed the equivalent of 4 "days" which means the system at this point must make up at least 2 of those days. The last day of school was originally Tuesday, June 19 and assuming no more inclement weather cancellations, the last day should now be June 21 (the day on which climatological summer begins). Can anyone verify this is the case now, hours being counted?
(3) Several computer models well known for pegging a storm many days out are hinting at a Wild Card scenario for Saturday-Sunday along the East Coast. Among them are the UKMet and the European. The JMA, NAM and GFS are just showing a clipper with perhaps light snow. Granted, I still have to write the after-action report on SuperKahuna # 1, but am going to wait until later today it has completely departed the United States so I can report accurate final snow totals, especially in New England. As promised earlier, I have to pay the piper for some of my call that did not pan out as expected.
IMPORTANT SITE REVISIONS
CHANGING EMAIL UPDATE PROCEDURES
I apologize to the many readers who were expecting an email update and never received one in advance of this most recent storm. The distribution list is still operational, but I did not activate it this time. I really wanted to, and feel bad in retrospect that I didn't. Instead, the time was spent adding a new feature that essentially automates email updates. It has been tested several times and works wonderfully. Each time a new post is published, Feedblitz scans the site and sends just that post all subscribers, free of charge. Before announcing this service, I wanted to make sure it would not be accompanied by annoying spam, ads, pop-ups, weird other bizarre things that could junk up your email accounts, or sell them to a third party. Another built-in feature is if the site has not been updated in weeks because there are no high-risk weather events, you will not continue to receive the same update multiple times. Basically, by signing up with Feedblitz, you can happily go about your life, and if "something wicked this way comes" again, as soon as I latch on to the possibilities and post about it, you receive that post in your email within 24 hours.
If you are a current member of the "old" distribution list, please take a few moments to register with Feedblitz using the signup field in the right column. Thanks for continuing to read and participate in the best part of winter by being a "Friend of Foot's Forecast."
ABOUT THE COMMENTS FEATURE
During major storm events, readers frequent and post comments in our discussion board. If your educational institution prohibits you from seeing a website such as this from a school computer, it is for a couple reasons, one of which is a comments board. Frequent and loyal commentors have been assigned own local weather link in the "Foot's Forecast Friends" column. While identities and sensitive personal data, home addresses, phone numbers are not shared or even known, those members represent the range of metropolitan areas from which this site draws consistent readership.
Having this wide range of readers provides us all with a sense of real-time "IMOYBY" (In My Or Your Back Yard...) conditions during a storm, and we are always looking for new members that can expand our cadre of weather observers. Last year, members of the Foot's Forecast community felt the value of having the comments for interaction during a storm outweighed the benefit of eliminating them to comply with telecommunications policies of schools around the Northeast.
If you are new to the site and wish to join the discussion feature, it is very easy to create a Google account so you can participate. Don't feel you'll have another other email account to constantly check, or you'll be receiving a lot of unwanted email advertising/spam. I can't stand that stuff myself and have expended great effort to see that I don't get it as well as anyone joining the site.
You create a simple account with Google and use only the login info (user id and password) to login into the comments. I haven't checked the Google email account I use for this in weeks, and it does not seem to be a problem. Registering to join the discussion group requires a few minutes, and in return you get a lifetime of enjoyment bantering and speculating on about storms and the like, learning about how weather affects the lives of others, and making new friends. It really is quite fun and it has made forecasting storms more valuable to me.
To give new (and frequent) readers a sense of the reponse this site has generated, there were over 4,000 unique visitors to the site on Monday, February 13. In the one week period leading up to devastating Katrina, over 10,000 people viewed and read portions of the site. This is not to say we are trying to make this the next Drudge Report. Definitely not. I say this because for those who do post comments, you also have a very and highly educated professional-level audience spread across the Northeastern United States. However many of those people just prefer to read the comments but don't have time to join the discussion. For those who comment frequently, don't be alarmed that way more people are reading than what you may have expected. Simply just talk (write) to us normally and in plain language if possible as if we're just having a regular conversation. Many of us, myself included have learned SO MUCH from the wisdom and insights of other people on here, it feels like family at times. I know that sounds campy, but this innocuous feature makes our little corner of the world special, fun and something to look forward to before, during and after THE NEXT BIG STORM. Please consider joining us!