Hope you’re already stocked up.
If you live in the south, chances are you’ve spent this week preparing for what’s forecast to be a major winter storm hitting the region this weekend. Here in Nashville I’ve seen predictions of anywhere between an inch of ice to 30 inches of snow, and pretty much everything in between, so honestly I have no idea what to expect and I’ll just be hunkering down with a bottle of whiskey and hoping I don’t lose power so I can still watch the NFL playoffs.
Of course one of the best parts about living in the south (other than the food and…you know, not being around northerners) is that we don’t get much snow here. I moved to Nashville in 2016 and we usually get maybe one real snow a year, the kind where you can actually go outside and measure the accumulation. Most of the time when they call for snow it ends up being a tease and we just end up getting some cold rain.
It sounds like this one might actually be the real deal though: The latest forecast from The Weather Channel is showing about 3-5 inches of snow and an inch or so of ice. (Quite the change from the 18 INCHES that were being predicted by some places earlier this week).
Even Jim Cantore, who strikes fear in every city he visits because it’s usually not good when he comes to town, has warned that Nashville could be in for a rough time:
The problem, of course, is that Nashville has no idea how to deal with snow.
I know it’s easy to make fun of people in the south for freaking out over what would amount to a little bit of snow in places like New York or Chicago. Just a regular winter day in those places. And I was kind of the same way when I moved here from West Virginia, a state that gets way more snow than middle Tennessee.
But after having experienced some snowstorms in Nashville, I’m here to tell you: The city simply cannot handle it. People can’t drive in the snow, and even for those who can it’s nearly impossible because the city can’t keep the roads clear. Roads become impassable, people end up wrecking or stuck, and the city has no choice but to pretty much grind to a halt.
The last time we got a few inches of snow, I wasn’t able to get out of my road for almost a week, not because I can’t drive in bad weather (although I did end up in a guardrail when I was 16 because I overestimated my ability to drive on ice…) but because my road was pretty much solid ice with no sign of even an attempt to treat it.
All that can only mean one thing: A mad rush to the grocery store this week to stock up for what people must think is going to be the apocalypse.
Across social media, people are sharing videos of empty shelves in grocery stores that have been completely stripped of anything and everything:
@aubreylandess making fun and then going home and putting a spoon under my pillow tehe ❄️ #nashville #snowstorm #nashvillesnowstorm #funny ♬ original sound – Cat Horizons
@iggytimepass They don’t play about getting bread during a snow storm in Nashville 😂😂 #fyp #nashville #snowstorm ♬ Spooky, quiet, scary atmosphere piano songs – Skittlegirl Sound
@rokinrachel Haha what happens in Nashville when it snows!😂🤣 #blizzard ♬ original sound – Mrkeepfit
@itsmeisabelmg No carts, produce, no meat, no bread, no milk, no eggs, no parking 😀😀😀😀😀 acting like it’s an apocalypse 😭
Several stores have reportedly run out of both beef and chicken, and if you don’t already have your bread and milk for those milk sandwiches that everybody seems to eat during a storm…well, forget about it at this point.
@thejennchoe the rage I felt just trying to get my weekly groceries!!! & needing eggs cuz I ran out!!! 😡
♬ Ode to Joy- Symphony No.9 in D Minor 'choral' – Lorne Balfe & Russell Emanuel & Steve Kofsky
Kinda reminds me of COVID times.
Now, in the interest of full transparency, I had to go to the grocery store yesterday (not to stock up, but because I actually needed something, which was terrible planning on my part), and the Kroger near my house was actually fairly well stocked. It was crowded, but it wasn’t a TOTAL madhouse. So if you’re in Nashville and still need to do your grocery shopping, there are still stores out there that haven’t been completely stripped.
But at this point, you’re probably stuck with what you’ve got. Get creative, try out some new recipes, and get ready to hunker down for…whatever we’re going to get.
@briaspen nashville core #nashville #atlanta #snowpocalypse #south #snowday ♬ Lacrimosa – Jairos & Isabel
Good luck everybody. I’ll see you on the other side.
