Snow

It puts smiles on the faces of kids; dread in the hearts of commuters. It is snow, and there's a "very good chance" the Philadelphia area will get at least a measureable amount by tonight, according to Accu-Weather. In fact, it could be downright nasty. "What we have here," an Accu-Weather meteorologist said this morning, "is a storm moving from the Plains states that now is over Kentucky and will reach the coast in the Carolinas. It is expected to reform there, following the normal winter pattern, and move up the coast.

Highways made slick by a fast-moving snowstorm turned the Philadelphia area into a demolition derby yesterday, with multivehicle accidents clogging highways and killing at least one person. The storm, which sent commuters fleeing homeward early for the second time this month, dumped snow as rapidly as an inch an hour across much of the region and created "whiteout" visibility conditions in some areas. "It dumped a lot of snow real quick and people did not adjust," said John Hagerty, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police, after a string of multivehicle accidents stopped traffic on Route 42 in Deptford Township, Gloucester County.

THE CITY is once again mismanaging another touchy subject: Snow Shoveling Citations. The law states that "each homeowner has 24 hours after the last snowflake to clear a path," yet Mayor Street's goons are out there on a Sunday to write out citations. Nice! Everyone who got one of those pieces of toilet fodder should send them back, noting the time of the final snowflake, the time of the citation, and include a quarter so that the goons can get a clue. Sadly, that's not where my complaint ends.

This is how it was in those December days in the tiny, improbably named village of Lopez in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania in those long-ago decades few of us can now recall. We don't remember whether it usually snowed six inches before 12 a.m. or 12 inches before 6 a.m., but always, always it snowed. For us - my cousins and me and our mothers and fathers and our aunts and uncles - that old poem, "Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house," was literally true.

Well it's about time someone cast a vote for snow! I read Dorothy Storck's "Soft snow, tough talk" on Jan. 27, and I wholeheartedly agree with her observations on snow. Her comments centered on how everybody (with the possible exception of the Philadelphia Streets Department) overreacts to this meteorological phenomenon with which we have recently been blessed. Why can't people just relax and enjoy it? When was the last time you just sat at your window and watched it snow?

Flakes might be flying for a while Wednesday, and probably won't add up to much. In Philadelphia, light snow might fall before and after some late morning and afternoon rain. But even the rain is unlikely, with only a 30 percent chance of any precipitation. Otherwise, skies are expected to be dry through the weekend. Only 2.5 inches of snow has fallen so far this winter in Philadelphia, almost all of it on Jan. 21. "Being that any snow should fall during the daylight hours, accumulations should be somewhat limited and mainly on unpaved surfaces," according to the National Weather Service.

The Philadelphia area was hit with its third snowfall of the season yesterday as two winter storms passed through, neither packing the wallop that forecasters had predicted. The first storm sent school students home early in several suburbs before tapering off in the afternoon. The second, moving up from the south, was expected to dump, at most, another one to three inches of snow on the region last night. At 6:30 p.m., as a light snow fell over the region, the National Weather Service canceled the winter storm warning that had been in effect all day, saying the threat of heavy snow had decreased.

Now you really didn't think we were going to get through the winter with only that measly inch of snow back on Super Sunday morn, did you? Well, did you? If you did, dream on. Because the Philadelphia area was due to get whacked with its first significant snow storm of the winter today. Before it's over around midnight tonight, up to five inches of snow could be on the ground. But with temperatures in the 40s tomorrow, it probably won't stay around too long.

What happened? Here we were expecting a legitimate snow storm, something like six or eight or 10 inches, and what'd we get? Nothing. Accu-Weather explained squeamishly this morning that the storm from the South developed too far to the east to bring any snow here. Instead, the storm dumped as much as a foot on the Jersey shore. Although the predicted snowfall failed to materialize here, there's an outside chance we still could get an inch or so by the time the storm moves on up the coast.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - For some reason, Scandinavia is not its frigid self, with unusually warm weather delaying the onset of winter in northern latitudes normally decked in white. The lack of snow has been bad news for winter sports - World Cup ski races have been dropped, or held on artificial snow, and mountain ski resorts are unable to open. There are even reports of bird song and blooming gardens in some places typically entering the winter freeze at this time of year. "Some flowers, like roses, have actually begun to blossom for a second time," said Mats Rosenberg, a biologist in Orebro, south-central Sweden.

By sheer numbers, the caped crusaders, masked crimebusters and spandex-ed superheroes lining up at the movie box office for the summer season — which begins Friday when The Avengers opens — has to be the largest gathering of comicbook-spawned dudes (and dudettes) in the history of summer movies. In The Avengers alone, there are, of course, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Thor, brought together by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to save the world from a demented Norse god (Thor's evil sibling, Loki)

DAVE CONNOLLY'S stretch as Philadelphia's calmest sports person ended Monday. His phone and email accounts again were ablaze/jammed and all was finally not right in his management world. Connolly, the athletic director at Horace Furness High, in South Philly, is the Public League baseball chairman and Monday, for the first time all season, rain and/or wet grounds caused a rash of postponements. Ten, 20, 30 years from now, someone will stumble upon this story via a search engine and growl, "Hold on here.

1 pound snow peas, ends trimmed 1 tablespoon mild white miso paste 2 teaspoons tamari 2 teaspoons sesame oil 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar 1/4 cup scallions, rough chopped 1 small garlic clove 1/4 cup water 1 teaspoon canola or peanut oil 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1. Lightly steam, boil, or water-sauté the snow peas until they turn bright green. Then drain the water. 2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Soldiers dug into a massive avalanche in a mountain battleground close to the Indian border Saturday, searching for at least 135 people buried when the wall of snow engulfed a military complex. More than 12 hours after the disaster at the entrance to the Siachen Glacier, no survivors had been found. "We are waiting for news and keeping our fingers crossed," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, an army spokesman. Hundreds of troops, along with sniffer dogs and mechanical equipment, were at the scene.

Seneca's Brittany Snow can't believe that her high school basketball career is nearing an end. The Inquirer South Jersey player of the year from Seneca will join the area's top seniors for one last go-round this weekend. On Saturday, Girls' Basketball Club of South Jersey will stage its annual all-star game at Paul VI. There will be a grammar-school all-star contest at 1 p.m. followed by the 3 p.m. game involving the high school senior all-stars. Also competing will be the other two seniors who recently earned Inquirer first-team all-South Jersey honors: Kutztown University recruit Natalya Lee of Rancocas Valley and Lebanon Valley College recruit Taylor Umbrell of Delran.

This may be hard to believe for the less solar-conscious, but today actually is the very last day of the winter of 2011-12. Spring is just a few hours away, with the vernal equinox due at 1:14 a.m. EDT tomorrow. Arguably, it arrived about 2,000 hours ago. Today's high in Philadelphia, 76 - 22 degrees above normal and average for a May 24 - was just 2 degrees Fahrenheit shy of the record of 78 set in 1918. Records were broken in Allentown and Mount Pocono. And if you're waiting for that late March-early April wintry ambush, stop waiting.

The labels are fitting and accurate: Most successful player in the eight-year history of Seneca girls' basketball. Leader of the best team the program has had. To some, those are badges, worn and flaunted. To Brittany Snow, they're just words. The senior, this year's Inquirer South Jersey Player of the Year in girls' basketball, doesn't dwell on celebrations or pomp or praise. She remembers battling players under the basket and eking out close wins. She remembers her sister Erica's buzzer-beater, from just inside half-court, to beat Lenape.

For John Davis, it was a dream winter - over by Halloween. That would have been just after a freak Oct. 29 storm of heavy, wet snow collapsed tree limbs, ripped down power lines, and set Davis and his public-works colleagues throughout the region to worrying: Here we go again. But after back-to-back brutal winters, neither Davis nor his peers or the best minds of meteorology imagined that that storm would be the worst of the "winter" of 2011-12. "Ordinarily you spend the winter plowing or getting ready for plowing," said Davis, borough manager in Doylestown, where tight streets and well-used sidewalks make snow removal an adventure.

BY THIS TIME last winter, Philadelphia had already been bombarded by 44 inches of snow. Fast forward a year, and we've barely gotten four. The lack of the white stuff no doubt makes some people happy - like at SEPTA and the Streets Department - but other area businesses are hurting from this unusually warm winter. Businesses like I. Goldberg Army & Navy, at 13th and Chestnut streets, which does the lion's share of its clothing sales during the winter months. "It's probably colder at Flyers games in the Wells Fargo Center than outside at Lincoln Financial Field," said Nana Goldberg, the store's owner.

WASHINGTON - Maine Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, one of the Senate's few remaining moderate Republicans, announced Tuesday she would not seek a fourth term - a blow to GOP hopes of regaining control of the chamber. Snowe, 65, was one of the few potential crossover voters in an increasingly partisan Congress, and she made her surprise decision in part after reflecting on the increasingly rancorous climate in Washington. She had also served in the House for eight terms. "I am a fighter at heart, and I am well prepared for the electoral battle," Snowe said in a statement.