There are dozens of instances where choices made with regards to historical events were affected or indeed changed by the weather.
- Napoleon misread the severe nature of the Russian winter in 1812.
- Hitler invaded Russia in June of 1941 thinking that he’d be in and out with a victory within a month. The battle, however, lasted well into the winter and masses of German soldiers died because they had no winter gear with them.
- D-Day was rescheduled at the last moment because of a Normandy storm.
- The atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki, was scheduled to have been dropped on Kokura, but clouds covering the target on August 9, 1945 caused the plane to divert to its secondary target.
- President Kennedy landed at Love Field in Dallas on that fateful day in November of 1963 with showers in the area. Plans were made to ride in an open air limo at the last minute because skies had cleared just a few moments after the president had disembarked the plane.
- The space shuttle Challenger tragedy occurred in 1987 because NASA chose to launch despite subfreezing Florida temperatures.
I find myself wondering if the events of January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC would have occurred as they unfolded if the weather had not cooperated?
The weather on that now infamous occasion was fairly typical of a January day in the mid-Atlantic. Salisbury, for example, reached 42 degrees under sunny skies on the date that President #45 allegedly attempted a coup to overturn the election of President #46.
Suppose the snow and ice that the mid-Atlantic received this week in 2022 had occurred during the same week in 2021. How many of the Capitol “visitors” on 1/6/21 could have been stranded for up to 27 hours on Interstate 95 and never reached their destination?
The military decisions considered by Napoleon, Hitler, and the Allies in WWII, could, and in some cases were, rescheduled due to the weather.
The Capitol “visitors”, however were only interested in visiting on January 6. They could not reschedule because the US Constitution required Vice President Pence to preside over the proceedings that would certify the US Presidential election. I mean, they didn’t care to visit on the 7th, did they?
I suppose that history could have simply been rewritten by the media if the “Fake News” of that time could have included a “Fake Weather” report…you know, like a blizzard warning with a gazillion feet of snow!
“Visitors” would have stayed home. Then, none of this would have happened, and everybody could have blamed the weather man…because that’s what people do!
Thank you for your indulgence; now on to the weather.
There will NOT be a blizzard with a gazillion feet of snow today as we wake up on the one year anniversary of the electoral certification of Joseph R. Biden as president.
Salisbury should reach about 41 degrees today under partly cloudy skies. (President #41, by the way, was the last Republican president to have actually won the popular vote. I am not suggesting that the other two Republican presidents were illegitimate as they won the electoral vote as required in order to ascend to that office.)
Clouds will thicken towards evening as a storm system creeps in from the southwest. Precipitation should arrive in the Salisbury area around midnight. It could possibly begin as rain or mixed precipitation.
During the early morning hours the precipitation should become all snow for a 3 to 5 hour period of time before ending around 9 AM or so. Accumulations of snow should average 1 to 3 inches across our area. Areas in the western part of Wicomico County could see as much as 5 inches and areas closer to the beach could receive a dusting to an inch.
“Visitors” to the US Capitol today and tomorrow can enjoy this.
Sunshine returns for Friday and Saturday. Highs tomorrow are not expected to exceed the freezing mark while the weekend should start off at about 35 degrees.