How Would Y’all Feel If Kentucky Didn’t Have a Snowy Winter?

Here's a mildly interesting phenomenon, if you ask me. I have a friend who hates cold weather but loves the snow. Go figure. She'll put on a jacket if it dips below 80 but loves to see a blanket of white.

Me? I can live with both the cold AND the snow...under certain conditions. For starters, I have no use for the kind of deep freeze we endured last December when temperatures were hanging out in the negative double digits. Secondly, snow is fine; it's the only thing that makes winter beautiful. But when there's 14 inches of the stuff or it comes with ice on the roads, I tap out. Actually, I don't want ANY winter precipitation on the roads. From my lips to God's ears, right?

El Niño Could Give Us a Winter Some Wouldn't Like

I know plenty of people who feel exactly as I do. And I know plenty of people who wish we'd just skip from fall to spring. Of course, it doesn't work that way. But how would those people feel if we REALLY didn't have much of winter? By that I mean, how would they--or anyone, really--feel if we didn't have much of a snowy winter? Take a look at this:

This is a typical El Niño pattern, and it may not always play out the way that it looks on this map. But Kentucky IS getting El Niño this year for the first time in four years. La Niña is the other atmospheric phenomenon that's possible, and that brings more snow and wet weather in the winter months.

Here's the actual prediction about how El Niño is expected to affect us here in Kentucky this winter:

El Niño Could Also Give Us a Winter a Lot of People Would Like

Here's the thing--and, no, I'm not getting into a climate change discussion; heaven forbid--we have seen Tornado Alley shift, over the years, from the Midwest to the Deep South. Some of those tornadoes that have happened in Alabama and Mississippi over the last few years have been catastrophic.

All I'm saying is, how would you feel if we experienced a shift like that with regard to snow? What if it's a very long time before we see another "decent" snowfall again? That's all I'm asking. And since we can and HAVE multiple consecutive years in which La Niña has been in charge, why can't that happen with El Niño?

Honestly, I'm not sure how I'd feel if I never saw another snowfall. And I don't think I can determine how I'd feel until it actually happens. I CERTAINLY have no interest in THIS ever happening again.

It happened on January 17th, and we're approaching the 30th anniversary of that monster. Wouldn't it be ironic if it's short sleeve shirt weather on January 17th? I can already hear a lot of folks saying, "That's fine with me."

But is it fine with you?

[SOURCE: Lexington Herald-Leader]