OPINION

EDITORIAL: The blizzard was a fizzard

We all heard the apocalyptic predictions for the Blizzard of 2015: Historic. Life-threatening. Crippling. This one, the mother of all winter storms, would paralyze the region for days. Blizzard-like winds, and up to 3 feet of snow, falling at a rate of 2 to 4 inches at its peak.

As soon as those dire forecasts — which followed by a day predictions calling for a mere one or two inches of the white stuff — began to spread, it didn't take long for people to make a beeline for the stores to denude the shelves of milk, bread, soup, batteries, shovels and salt.

And then we all hunkered down, waiting for the worst.

It never came.

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No one ever said weather forecasting was an exact science. But the predictions for New York City and New Jersey were, as one humbled weather service put it, a flub of historic predictions.

Several meteorologists offered mea culpas. Gary Szatkowski of the National Weather Service in Mount Holly delivered his apology by Twitter at 12:46 a.m Tuesday. "My deepest apologies to many key decision makers and so many members of the general public. You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right, and we didn't. Once again, I'm sorry."

A more amusing apology for a "pig of a forecast" came from weather site Phillywx.com on its Facebook page. "Nature laughs last, laughs the most, and laughs the loudest at the weak human attempt to forecast."

Not everyone found the botched forecast amusing, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He said that because of the poor track record of the forecasting services, the state will be investing in its own weather detection systems. He is still frosted at the forecasts that failed to intuit back in November that 7 feet of snow was going to immobilize the outskirts of Buffalo.

Gov. Chris Christie, at his news conference this morning, didn't miss an opportunity to lay the blame on the media for the pre-storm hysteria. In response to a reporter, who said, "And there are going to be a lot of critics saying that perhaps there was too much done for this storm. What would your response be to that?" Christie replied, "Well, my response would be we were listening to all of you. You know, the fact is that you were working off the same information we were working off."

So, will this "boy who cried wolf" forecast prompt people to ignore the predictions of severe storms and the entreaties of public officials to prepare for the worst? We hope not. Forecasters get things right far more often than not.

And, as Rutgers meteorologist David Robinson noted, "With a forecast like this, the goal is to keep people safe and get them off the roads."

Besides, how many of us really wanted a genuinely crippling snowstorm? A couple of feet of snow and some power outages may be good for an extra day or two off from school or work, but they're also dangerous. Mother Nature gave us a break, and probably saved a life or two in doing it. Be thankful.