The Big Blizzard -- NOT!

Feb. 10, 2010 – Forecasting snow is always tricky. When I was a TV weatherman, none of us got it right better than half the time.

It’s not so hard forecasting precip; you know, something wet falling out of the sky. But snow is such an intricate combination; it’s really hard to say if it’s going to happen.

So it happened in New York City today. But not nearly with the severity that they forecast. I was up at 4:30 this morning and all the TV guys were betting big money that it was not only going to snow but it was going to be a blizzard. With whiteouts. And accumulations of 9 to 12 inches. They were so certain, all the schools shut down. And that’s pretty rare for here.

Well, it did snow heavily. And the wind was very gusty. But from what I could see in midtown Manhattan, it was far short of the white death. Lots of flights were canceled because they couldn’t see the ground. I took the Staten Island ferry to get some snow shots. Wrong! I got shots of a gray wall. Great.

(A friend had told me to go to Central Park instead. I didn't. But next time I may listen to her.)

So it was a whiteout if you were flying but far from dangerous to the average New Yorker. Traffic flowed. People walked across the streets. Mainly what I noticed was there weren’t many people out and about because so many businesses had taken the day off.

As it is, it’s 8 at night, the gutters are full of salty dirty slush and I’m glad I didn’t wear my expensive dress shoes.

But on the positive side, I did get a nice shot of the snow as it fell this morning. I was standing in front of Macy’s at Herald Square about 8 o’clock. It was a really exceptional shot. So I got busy trying to sell it to publications.

I got the email addresses of a handful of photo editors. New York Times, Salon magazine, Associated Press, New York Magazine. About a dozen altogether. Nobody bit. But I did get an encouraging nibble, a note from the photo editor at New York Magazine. “We’re going to pass. Nice image, though.”

Now wasn’t that nice? She didn’t have to do that. And I just might give them another opportunity if I come up with a good image or two in the future.

Copyright 2010 James C. Lewis