Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Weather prognosticators were giving residents in the area a heads up for a snow dump that was building up in the Colorado Rockies and would hit us Friday afternoon.
Based on those advanced warnings many southeast Minnesota schools closed the doors for the day as a precaution.
Byron public schools dismissed early for K-5 at 12:40 p.m. and grades 6-12 were released at 1 p.m.
Hayfield closed at noon last Friday. So did Triton.
Kasson-Mantorville schools remained open rather than closing. Why?
Perhaps it harkens back to a similar forecast when Superintendent Mark Matuska heeded the winter weather warning and closed schools. In that case, there was no snow. None. Nada.
Well, with the inexact science of weather forecasting, there’s always nature’s wildcard that says it, not man’s prognostication will determine a storm’s track.
At 2 p.m. on Friday there were no flurries fluttering to the ground outside of our office windows. The winter storm warning was on hold.
There was to have been a 50 percent chance of snow. Just waiting until 4 p.m. when the percentage of snow would rise to 90 percent. Get out the plows, snowblowers and shovels.
By five o’clock we’re certain to have what would be “Snowmagedon” move into the region.
Unofficially, Kasson took a gut punch late Friday afternoon and evening into the early hours of Saturday morning with 12-inches reported to have fallen. It was one of the first heavy snows of the season, with winter still five days away.
Some were caught off guard.
Some of us failed to start our snow blowers before the first snow and rushed to have them serviced just in the nick of time. Others relied on shovels and high end of the driveway snow banks to clear a path to the street.
What we took as a heavy pre-winter snowstorm, others in the Midwest were terrorized by tornadic weather. From Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky tornados pummeled the
regions with town-leveling destruction.
Those of us viewing the impact of EF-4 to EF-5 tornados hitting that region from our cozy retreats in snow-covered Minnesota homes watched as video clip after video clip told the story of death and destruction.
While we mourn for those families and individuals suffering heavy loss just prior to Christmas, we can reach out and offer assistance through the American Red Cross, Samaritan’s Purse, Convoy of Hope and other agencies designed to assist those caught up in nature’s fury.
HOPE
I was born with an incurable disease, so was everybody—the same one that every machine has—and the knowledge of the fact frightens nobody, damages nobody; but
the moment a name is given the disease, the whole thing is changed: fright ensues, and horrible depression, and the life that has learned
its sentence is not worth the living. Medicine has its office, it does its share and does it well; but without hope back of it, its forces are crippled and only the physician’s verdict can create that hope when the facts refuse to create it.
Mark Twain