Shreveport’s Current Winter Weather Take Sounds Ignorant

Well, congratulations to the scholars of Shreveport social media. Apparently you've graduated with your degrees of being weather guessers today.

For over a week, meteorologists have been warning of a winter storm that would scrape its way across our region. First, they said there's a chance some cold temps could settle in though the region. That was about 15 days out.

Once we got about 10 days away, they advised that we could see a wintery precipitation along with the freezing temperatures. Based on the computer modeling they were looking at.

This was about the time we started to see the social media scholars start. There were tons of posts across Shreveport social media, written with extreme certainty, that blizzard conditions were going to settle in around the Ark-La-Tex.

At that point, temperatures were already dropping into sub-freezing across the area. Which brings its own set of problems to local infrastructure, but doesn't have the same impacts has winter precipitation brings.

As we got to days away from the winter storm crashing into the Shreveport area, the conversation over closures started. Should roads and bridges get closed, should colleges and universities close, should municipal buildings close, and ultimately...should schools close?

It seemed like EVERYONE had an opinion.

Once it was clear some form of water would fall from the clouds, we saw a few cancellations start hitting. But the Shreveport social media scholars weren't happy with what was staying open.

Posts about "why are these schools still open if those are closed!?!?!" were popping up with reckless abandon. Even people who don't have kids in schools were getting fired up that they were keeping schools open on Thursday.

Then Thursday came through, and Shreveport didn't get snow, sleet, or freezing rain. Everything looked pretty good. Just a lot of straight rain, and above-freezing temps.

However, about mid-afternoon on Thursday, the temps started dropping. Models started to show a chance for snow to start mixing with the rain around Shreveport, and the threat of slick roads ramped up again.

So schools met, and they said they were going to cancel school for Friday. At least some did. Others stayed open, and the fight of "why are they open if they're closed!??!?!" fired up again.

But late on Thursday night, the temperatures reversed, and started increasing again. Shreveport was above-freezing, and all rain, with a slight chance of an overnight freeze. At that point, it looked like Shreveport was about to escape.

That didn't sit well with social media scholars.

To be fair, many of these social media scholars had already started to roll out their outrage online Thursday. When they didn't get their big snowfall, they started throwing an online temper tantrum. They thought that the lack of snow in Shreveport meant they were smarter than meteorologists and they couldn't wait to post about it.

These edgelords really wanted everyone to know that they KNEW there wouldn't be snow, and that THEY said schools should be open. Busting out rulers to "measure the snowfall" and all sorts of gimmicks.

But here's the thing...they're not smarter. They didn't know.

Shreveport got lucky. That's all.

What kept Shreveport safe here was the freezing line. If the line of freezing precipitation would have fallen just miles south of where it did, Shreveport would be in a frozen apocalypse. A city with bad infrastructure, and no winter weather management couldn't handle what places like Dallas and Little Rock are dealing with.

Flights shut down in Dallas, road conditions deteriorating in Arkansas, and power companies fighting to keep the heat on. Places like Arkansas have things Shreveport doesn't have...like plow trucks with the ability to sand & salt roads:

These results could have been Shreveport's reality if that line of temperatures would have shifted just a little bit. But there's no way to properly predict that in advance. Science can advise that the ingredients for the recipe are in place, but the exact location of the final results can't be accurately predicted.

Imagine the National Weather Service predicting a Tornado Warning for the Shreveport, and a tornado hits Bossier, and people start screaming "there's no excuse for them to get Shreveport all worried about a tornado". Just because the thing that they warned you about didn't land on YOUR doorstep doesn't mean they were wrong, and that you were right.

If we had the ability to specifically predict the exact timing and geographical location of severe weather, we'd never have another death caused by weather again.

But we don't. Especially your Facebook account.

Also, this idea that calling off something like a school day in advance is a problem is wishful thinking. Its better for everyone that the day get called off at 3pm the day before, than at 5am the day of. Anyone who thinks otherwise must not have had a kid in school over the last 15 years, or leads a very blessed life.

When school is called off, the parents have to make a lot of adjustments. Who will be watching the kids when they would normally be in school? Does the daycare have the space? Would they take an extra 30 kids at 6am?

Do these parents now have to take a vacation day, or a sick day? What if they don't have any days built up the first week of January? Do you want someone to get fired on Friday because the school waited until 5am to call off, instead of the day before...giving them time to plan?

How gifted you must be in this life to assume that because YOU don't have to personally deal with something, it doesn't exist. Or its somehow a burden on you. If you don't have kids in school, and school is cancelled because of a severe weather threat, why does it impact you?

Let's flip this too. Say the schools pushed ahead, held class on Friday, and the freezing line did shift south. School buses hit the icy roads, one slides off and kids are involved in an accident. What would these SAME PEOPLE be posting on social media? I can tell you, with more certainty than a 10-day weather forecast. They would say:

"SeE! i ToLD yOu ThEy SHouLd hAvE CaLLeD oFf sChoOLs!"

Because we have given far too many people access to things like social media, and that makes them believe that their voice actually matters.