If you're not from Cleveland, we have something here called the snow belt. You can probably check the radar and see where it is right now, because it's probably snowing there. It consists of an area that is bordered roughly by I-77, I-480, Lake Erie and some point east depending on wind direction.
The reason we have this here is that we get lake effect snow. This happens when cold wind crosses the unfrozen lake and picks up moisture, then dumps it on us as snow when it reaches land. Buffalo pretty much gets this all winter. Here, because of the shape of the shore and the general direction that weather comes from (northwest), it's mostly confined to the east side of Cleveland.
It can get worse though. If the wind comes more directly out of the north, pretty much all of Northeast Ohio gets screwed, and if it goes on long enough that's when we finally get school closings and such.
But as far as I'm concerned, it is worse because I have to drive through this fucking shit every day. I kid you not, two weeks on the job and snow every single day. Could be worse I suppose. We don't have earthquakes, hurricanes, forest fires and mudslides here.
The good news is that we are suppose to reach 40 this weekend.
The only time we in the Detroit Area feel it is on the back side of the storms when we get the effects from Lake Erie if the wind is coming from the right direction.
And here, 1/4" of snow = school closings everywhere + rush to store for bread and milk + shitty drivers. We've even had closings for anticipated snow that never actually fell.
When it does, though, look out. When I was living there we had an inch, and it was an absolute disaster. Being from Pittsburgh, I'm all to familiar with the white stuff, so I hopped in my car and headed out to work. On the way I got to see such amusing sites as the snowplow driver who didn't know what he was doing, and left a (comparatively ;) ) huge pile of snow in the middle of an intersection when he turned. People spinning and sliding all over the place (including the one guy who spun out to the side of the road in front of me. I passed him, and then looked in my rear view mirror in time to see him spin AGAIN. Too funny...)
I love driving in snow. I'm not afraid of it. What I AM afraid of is the other people, because so many of them either drive dangerously slow ("ooh, snow, I'd better not pass that snail...") or think they can just drive as if it weren't there. Even in Pittsburgh -- I think people have to relearn, every year.
Oh, and it's snowed almost every day here, too... :)
Last night, I was hating life. I parked about 250 yards away from Lake Erie for my job. That lake effect FREEZING snow was smaking my face as I was walking to my car. I had to take shelter so I could learn how to breathe again. That shit I could do without.
As for two weeks on the new JO and snowing daily, suck it Pizzie. You're my boy, but you get no sympathy from me. I do the drive from Canton.