Snow! in the news

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

1

Snow advisories, snow showers, snow warnings, etc.
WLOSers cranked up the snow sirens and went all out for a few flurries on Thursday. Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan is apparently the new WLOS snowbunny, taking over a role really defined by former WLOSer Suzanne Hudson back a few years ago. Carolyn wore clothes trimmed in fur, big gloves and another stupid-looking fuzzy Kangol pulled way too low over her brow. That thing was catching snowflakes like dandruff.

Anyway, Carolyn was out in Weaverville for the 5, jumping up and down and hyping the weather. OK, she wasn’t really jumping up and down, but it sounded like it. Carolyn kept saying, “It’s really coming down. Look at this, it just keeps coming down. The snow is really coming down.” Sigh. SHUT UP! We get it. Carolyn declared the roads “slick” at shortly after 5 p.m. and said she encountered “white out conditions” while driving up to Weaverville to do her stand-up. So it’s only Dec. 8, and a WLOSer has already described blizzard-like conditions. That’s a new record.

At 11, the television screen actually did go white for a few seconds before switching to Carolyn out in the dark. She said the snow had caused hundreds of wrecks across the mountains, and she showed video of cars spun out on icy patches. She said there were 116 wrecks, including 50 just in Asheville. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, people! Learn how to drive! Or don’t drive if you see a flake. If you people went this nuts over a few flurries, what’s going to happen when we really get some snow??? Ok. Ok. We know. We’ve grown up here and we’ve seen how people freak out over a little snow. But still…

Kudos to Carolyn for not going directly for the milk and bread angle on the first flurries of the season. But a mark against her for pulling out her “weather gadget” that Mike Cuevas loaned her. She just brandished it like it was cool, but never said what it did.

Instead of playing with Cuevas’ tool, Carolyn, why not do a little reporting. Like asking where the hell the DOT was all day yesterday. Where were the salt trucks? How could they have been caught by surprise? Why didn’t they get their butts out on the road?

It’s going to be a long winter…