An incorrect forecast sent residents to local supermarkets and disrupted weekend plans.
By: Cynthia Williamson
First it was snow, lots of it.
Then it was drizzle.
And now it’s a fizzle.
New Hope Clemens Market Assistant Store Director Karl Grabner chuckled at a notion the grocery industry is in cahoots with meteorologists.
"I don’t think so," Mr. Grabner said with a laugh. "Not that I’m aware of."
One would have had their suspicions Saturday when forecasters were advising listeners to plan for a blizzard, a storm experts predicted would dump up to a few feet of snow in some areas throughout the region.
But it has become known as the storm that wasn’t. The snowfall failed to materialize into anything close to resembling a blizzard.
By the time forecasters got a true handle on the storm’s ever-changing personality, it was too late.
Acting New Jersey Gov. Donald DiFrancesco had already declared a state of emergency and ordered state offices and courts closed late Sunday afternoon; schools had already canceled Monday classes and grocery store shelves had already been ravaged.
Mr. Grabner said he is hard pressed to understand the fervor that developed over the weekend’s weather forecast.
"I can’t put my finger on it," he said. "But once it’s built up by the media, we prepare as soon as we hear."
Milk and bread, of course, are the traditional snowstorm staples but Mr. Grabner said consumers will "pretty much purchase everything across the board" when storm warnings are in effect.
"There were lines," Mr. Garbner said. "But it wasn’t chaotic as in some places I saw."
John Kosloski holds no grudges against the media or weather forecasters because it’s Mother Nature who has the ultimate authority.
"And who knows what Mother Nature is going to do," he said.
While the New Hope resident who makes his living as a message therapist "usually finds the weather forecast pretty accurate," he said the media "really hypes things up."
Mr. Kosloski said he was taken aback when he strode into the Giant supermarket in Solebury Township on Saturday and witnessed a checkout line curl almost all the way around the store.
"It was fun and funny," he said, recalling how it had become a sort of social event for those who waited in line for a half hour or longer to purchase groceries. "I thought, wow, it takes a storm to bring us together."
Mr. Kosloski said he didn’t get "too crazy over the storm," purchasing just enough food to "get us through."
Ronnie Vincent wasn’t as forgiving about the snowfall that wasn’t.
Mrs. Vincent divides her time between Lambertville and New York City and postponed a trip to the Big Apple on Monday after hearing the weather forecast.
"They’re just never right," she sighed. "I don’t even know how they could have come up with two feet of snow."
She said the threat of a major snowstorm also scared customers away from the restaurant where she works, Full Moon in Lambertville.
"Sunday started off as a great day," she remembered. "Then everybody heard the weather forecast and ran out of there."
It was a bust for some businesses and a boom for others.
"We were extremely busy," said Josh Eschen, manager of Bucks County Video in Solebury Township.
He estimates 6,000 videos were rented, about tripling the amount of business the store usually does over a weekend.
"On Saturday and Sunday, we were horrifically busy," he said. By Sunday night, it was reminiscent of the calm before a storm.
"I think people were home battening down the hatches," he said.
State and county offices were closed Monday but Lambertville Municipal Clerk Mary Elizabeth Sheppard said "we were here and fully functional" until 1:30 in the afternoon when some municipal offices closed early.
"We’re able to handle anything," she quipped.