With this kind of luck, we should all buy lottery tickets

Almost every city surrounding Cape Girardeau has seen more snow this season. I don't know how, but we keep dodging the bullet. Storms go north of us. Storms go south of us. Storms weaken as they approach.

Our last system, Winter Storm "KISS", left Cape with barely one inch, while areas to the west, south, and east saw higher accumulations. It's almost amazing how the storm skipped past us, leaving Cape County in a little wedge with the least snowfall. In the map below, it's easy to spot our location -- we have less snow than almost everybody in the Midwest.

The National Weather Service doesn't keep track of snowfall at Cape Girardeau. However, I estimate that we've had about 8 inches total for the season, perhaps 9 with generous rounding. We're never had more than 3 inches on the ground at any time, and that particular snowfall melted within 2 days.

By comparison, here are the snow totals for surrounding cities so far:

Paducah, KY: 18.9 in.

Evansville, IN: 15.5 in.

St. Louis, MO: 28.2 in.

Columbia, MO: 42.5 in.

Springfield, MO: 18.9 in.

Kansas City, MO: 30.2 in.

Nashville, TN: 12.5 in.

Memphis, TN: 9.7 in.

Tupelo, MS: 13.4 in.

Little Rock, AR: 14.6 in.

Texarkana, TX-AR: 10.0 in.

Yes, we've been outskunked by towns in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, places that usually only see a tiny fraction of the snowfall that we do.

Not that I'm complaining, of course. I just worry that our ridiculous string of good luck is going to eventually run out and we're going to be totally shocked when a real blizzard comes for a change.

Glad I'm not a school administrator

If schools are having trouble making up snow days from our string of small snowstorms, I can't imagine how much disruption a series of real storms would cause -- the kind of storms that everybody else has seen.

In fairness, even an inch of snow can make roads hazardous if the temperature is low enough. For school officials, it's a rock-and-a-hard-place situation: hold classes and then face a lawsuit when somebody gets hurt. Or don't hold classes and then face penalties when your test scores suffer from all of the disruptions.

On the other hand, it's been amusing to read some of the comments posted to the website. I particularly love the parents who were demanding that Jackson call off classes early yesterday, right at the height of the snowstorm when the roads were the most hazardous.

I agree with "eddieboy" who wrote, "After the kids are at school, it is much safer (as police will tell you) to keep them there to allow time for the city/county crews to clean and treat the streets. At the same time, it is safer for young inexperienced teen drivers in high schools to stay in school until those roads are safer to drive. School dismissal in the 2:30-3:30 time is among the safest times for drivers on the roads with the vast majority of drivers still at work."

Get your shorts and sunscreen ready

After the cold snap today, we're going to enjoy a veritable heat wave this weekend and next week as temperatures soar into the 50s and perhaps even 60s. It's possible that the dramatic change in the weather patterns could last the rest of the winter, but somehow I doubt it. We're lucky, but not that lucky.