If you’re a big fan of TV news, you might want to stop reading now. If you like being inundated with weather reports, and believe something called Doppler is actually cool, this is not the blog post for you.

I’m about to commit the unthinkable. It’s heresy, especially for a member of the media. I think we make too entirely much out of the weather. That’s not really a secret. It’s been my pet peeve for a long time.

Yesterday I watched as snow rolled into the region in the early afternoon. And the response was about what you’d expect: Mass panic.

Apparently everyone headed for their cars at the same time. People climbed in those SUVs, and all proceeded to hit the road at the same time. And then sit there. For hours.

I sat in my office most of the afternoon, listening to the radio and then catching the early TV news at 4 p.m. It was about what I expected. Armageddon. Wall-to-wall coverage. Cars stacked up in long lines on almost all the major arteries.

Me? I didn’t leave the office until about 6:45. I sloshed through a little glop in the parking lot, cleaned off my car, and drove home as I would almost any other night.

Except for one small item. It took longer than my normal commute? And why was that? Were the streets drifted over? Not exactly. They were wet.

But last night’s drive reaffirms something I’ve suspected for some time. Either we have totally forgotten, or in many cases we just have no clue how to drive in the weather.

And there’s this, and I know this is going to sound strange. There is such a thing as driving too slow in the kind of conditions we had last night. There really is no reason to creep along at 15 mph, as I encountered several people doing. They’re just as likely to cause problems with people swerving to go around them.

Now let me be clear. I am not espousing speeding, or even going too fast for conditions. I am not one of those gear-heads in an SUV who believes my vehicle gives me carte blanche to drive as fast as I want no matter the conditions. You know the ones. They’re the guys who can’t figure out what happened when they roll their four-wheel drive vehicle.

But we don’t have to come to a complete halt either. That’s what I saw on a lot of roads yesterday.

Now I will admit I was not out there in late afternoon. By the time I headed out, it was actually raining.

But it’s the general panic that sets in at the mere mention of snow, which sends everyone out onto the road at the same time, that creates part of the problem.
This morning I got up and drove into the office just as I would on any other morning.
The TV and radio are warning me about icing and slick spots.

Maybe I missed them.