Media influences snow fake outs
Over the years, snow has become a foreign concept in Greenville, NC. On the rare occasion that we do receive snow, it occurs once a year. Even then, it’s never more than a couple of inches at best, despite reports predicting well over eight inches every single time. Because of this, many, like myself, have developed doubts about our local news stations' assumptions and ultimately do not believe them when they claim we will receive snow.
In mid-January, newscasters assured everyone that on Jan. 24, we would have one of the coldest winters and worst snowstorms that we had ever seen. For a whole week, they convinced everyone that we would receive around 11 inches of snow.
graphic by Bella Dameron
It wasn’t just newscasters freaking out over this, but people on social media were as well. Fear and panic grew across NC over this “snowstorm,” which resulted in shelves at grocery stores being wiped clean of necessities like water bottles and toilet paper. There were even rumors that the extreme temperatures would cause trees to explode. Yes, apparently trees can explode. All over my social media feed, people convinced themselves that if you received weather below freezing, your backyard would look like a warzone. It was comical the way people seemed to exaggerate theories about the hypothetical weather.
Like clockwork, the “snowstorm” arrived, and we never received a drop of snow. The extent of the damage this weather caused was some ice on the roads and a two-hour delay in schools.
Little did I know this “snowstorm” did more damage than I realized. It left me in a state of disbelief. So, when the newscasters were back on the television saying we were going to receive 13 inches of snow the very next weekend, of course, I didn’t buy it. I have never seen 13 inches of snow in my life, much less in Greenville, NC, so there was no way I was falling for this trick again.
Then comes Jan. 31, 2026, when the second snowstorm began. All I can say is I was wrong, astronomically wrong. Just like the newscasters said, we received 13 inches of snow – the most snow received in Greenville since 1980. Around noon, it began in small flurries. Of course, I assumed this was the most we were going to get. But as the day went on, those flurries turned into a downpour, and it just kept coming. The storm persisted until 6 a.m., and when I woke up the next day, the snow was up to my chins.
Since my family had not expected the weather reports to be accurate, we were completely unprepared. I didn’t have any snow gear; we were lacking in a lot of our groceries, and the worst part was I didn’t even put a bowl out for snow cream.
I don’t know anything about meteorology, but what I do know is that it is 2026. We are making robots. How are we still miscalculating THE WEATHER? The inconsistencies in our weather channels cannot be tolerated anymore. I’m not sure what needs to be done to improve the technology needed to calculate this, but I hope that some innovations will be made so we won’t have to second-guess our weather channels again.