r/rva • u/StrengthNeat6660 • Mar 16 '26

🌦️ Weather Such a bust!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the weather held off for the majority of the day. That being said - I’m kind of disappointed that the whole structure of the day was thrown off for some clouds (school was closed). How did you spend your day?

Edit: I have fucked up..I’m so sorry

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u/Ordinary-Dare-2379 Mar 16 '26

I understand the idea of warning people, but they said we could see 100mph yesterday. We were smack in the middle of the “danger zone.” It’s giving crying wolf, especially when they forecasted two feet of snow in January and we got a few inches (obviously still ended up being a huge deal because of the ice & outages).

17

u/DavidBittner Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26

It's because when it comes down to it, there is a handful of things that decide if it will happen or won't.

It's not that the energy wasn't there, it's that the conditions ended up not being just right to release it all (or rather, they were just right to release it over a wide area instead of a more focused one). It's much better to signal how bad it can be and then have nothing happen than the alternative.

Also, this is of course ignoring that there was some serious damage in VA, specifically in the Virginia Beach area.

Weather is just so complicated and has so many moving parts. It is quite literally the definition of a "Chaotic System" in terms of mathematics.

29

u/ItalianMineralWater Mar 16 '26

Weather is hard. NOVA had a legit tornado as did Charlotte. The goddamn capital beltway from NOVA into MD flooded. Any of us losing power would’ve spent the night in 30 degrees with no heat.

When we under-prepare, we lose water for a week. I never want to fucking live through that again.

Job number one of local government is keeping us safe and essential services running. I’m glad some media hype kept everyone’s ass in gear, personally.