Inverness Forest Today: How I Caused the Great Blizzard!

Now that everyone has calmed down from the recent snowstorm, I have a confession to make: I caused the great blizzard! I didn't mean to cause this chaos. It was just an experiment that went wrong.

It started two winters ago after I shoveled the snow from a small snowstorm. With the prediction of another storm in two days, I decided to leave the snow shovel on my porch, ready for action.

When the storm hit, it was only flurries -- nothing to shovel. However another storm was predicted later in the week - a big one. Again I left the shovel on the porch. When this storm hit, it turned out to be only rain. Again I left the shovel on the porch. For the rest of the winter there wasn't enough snow to shovel.

So last year I decided to try an experiment. When the first snow of the season was predicted, out came the snow shovel. It stayed on my porch the entire winter. The total snow accumulation for last winter was only about eight inches. The presence of the snow shovel seemed effective in warding off big snow storms. Time after time, while the shovel was on the porch, either the snowstorm failed to arrive, or only an inch or two fell.

Perhaps this was a fair experiment. Sure, when the shovel was on the porch, we had little or no snow. But what would happen if the shovel remained far away from the porch? Would we have big snowstorms? So this year I left the shovel in the basement.

You know what happened last weekend: we got hit with a whopper of a storm! It wasn't even winter yet! So, I'm to blame for the blizzard. I didn't mean to cause such chaos. But I had to know if leaving a shovel on the porch can effectively ward of a snow storm.

I've been trying to figure out how the presence of a snow shovel on my porch keeps the snow from falling. The best I can come up with is that once a snowstorm sees that I'm prepared for it, the storm decides to save its snow for a place where people are not prepared. What's the point in dumping a foot or two of snow if people are ready to shovel it? Can someone come up with a better explanation for the effectiveness of the snow shovel on my porch?

So, I promise, really promise, that I'll take steps to ward of the snow all winter. To make up for the problems I caused by leaving my snow shovel in the basement, I'll leave two shovels on the porch. The picture below shows my current precaution against more snow.