No one in Dallas or throughout the newly-formed southern ice belt needed to be watching in western Pennsylvania yesterday morning to know what sort of prognostication Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog/meterorologist would make.
Winter’s firmly ensconced in the south. For those shivering southerners, they only hope Ole Phil’s prediction on the duration is exaggerated. And watching the thousands of revelers atop Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania, it seemed their weather was preferable to the icy conditions across the southern part of the country.
But who are we to argue with “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary” - that is, honestly, his official title. And he looks pretty good for a critter that’s been predicting the weather (at a respectable 40% success rate according to the sour apples at NOAA) since 1887.
But we in the area formerly known as the sunny south won’t be suffering along for much longer. According to the Weather Prediction Center (don’t know their actual batting average) says that the ice storm we’ve been tolerating the past few days is about to move on. And as it moves north (where cold weather belongs) they’re warning of “life threatening wind chills” - that’s wind chills in the 50-below range across New England.
Fifteen million people are under that advisory -but there’s some good news as well. Those abysmal temperatures are only expected to last until Sunday. But for residents of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, it’s going to be a miserable 48 hours or so.
To that, we can only echo the sentiment New Hampshire Homeland Security and Emergency Management posted on their Facebook page: “Avoid any outdoor activities on Friday and Saturday!” The exclamation point, btw, is theirs…”Cold temperatures paired with the wind chill factor could lead to potentially life-threatening conditions outdoors.”
Meanwhile, we southerners are still putting up with what the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, Texas, describes as “an ice rink on our roads.”
All we can say at this point is this: here in the South, we’re prepared to defend our gas heat. Now would not be time for anyone to suggest it’s time to give up on gas as a heat source.
Right now, we’re taking all the heat we can get.
And the heat’s on-figuratively speaking- for those folks who continue to insist that Americans are ready to give up their guns. The latest NSSF NICS numbers were released yesterday and, no surprise, there’s no real indicator that plowshares will overtake gun company stock prices on Wall Street.
For a forty-second consecutive month, gun sales-as measured by the adjusted NICS numbers from NSSF have topped one-million in a single month.
As NSSF’s Managing Director of Public Affairs Mark Oliva explains it, the numbers are notable… “given the antigun sentiment by certain governors and members of Congress who ignore these trends and instead of focusing on reducing crime, holding criminals accountable and making their communities safer, only focus on instituting roadblocks and denying the rights of those who obey the law. Americans, by the millions each month, are taking ownership their Second Amendment rights.”
Not much to add to that…other than…we’ll keep you posted.
Stay safe this weekend.
— Jim Shepherd