the 'winter weather advisory' drives me up the wall..
'gee, its january.. i wonder what sort of weather i should expect?'
They've also dumbed it down severely over the years. In Massachusetts it used to mean 4-6 inches of snow or a tenth to quarter of an inch of ice accretion. Over the past few years it has been invoked for such things as freezing fog causing a coating of ice on the roads or a mere 2 inches of snow, and specifically citing that as the need for the advisory.
It's fun to watch them ruin a meaningful product, ask the masses whether the product is needed anymore, then come out and say "the public says it's not a good product" after they used it for target practice for years.
We need to bring back Ice Storm Watch/Warnings, Snow Advisories, Freezing Rain Advisories, and Heavy Snow Watch/Warnings. Winter Weather Advisories and Winter Storm Watch/Warnings should be for mutli-precip events in the same area. Annoyingly, the Norton (Boston) NWS never used those specific watches and warnings.
i just realized.. i'm getting old..
used to be, in a given winter, when i was a kid, we may or may not get a snow day. i grew up, and still live in, the mountains. most days, the school bus got up here before the snowplow did.
now, they close schools (or delay them) if there's even a chance of snow.
the road up here isn't that terrible in the winter, i learned to drive in the winter (in an old vw bus) and did just fine. the school bus driver did it just fine. i don't get it.