About to have some winter

So far the winter of 2012-2013 has been pretty much a no show except for some cold temps, but nothing terribly cold.  it has been quite windy, so it's seemed colder.  Basically it's been a brown winter with only 3 inches of snow; no need to even shovel except wanting to keep the sidewalks clear of ice.  Now a big storm seems to be bearing right down on us promising more snow than we've had all winter so far.  From the perspective of precipitation, the area needs the moisture in whatever form it comes.  Even though the temperature has not dropped below 0 F (-18 C), our plants have been subjected to the worst of it having been deprived of an insulating cover of snow.  Guess we'll see what's hardy and what's not hardy at those temperatures.  None of this even begins to compare to the massive, unbelievably massive, snowfalls of my youth in the snow belt, lake effect snow belt, of upstate NY.  Yes, TPP's personal record was a 104" (264 cm) snow fall in 48 hours.  Hard to imagine isn't it?  So this storm is nothing really, but it comes during a particularly dry winter.  If we get a lot of snow, we'll have to see how the Norwegian forest cat, an indoor marshmallow pet, handles it just for fun.  Let's check the radar.  Storm front is about 80 miles SW on a direct bearing for us, so in about 3 hours we'll see how it goes.  No worries about driving when you're on foot; just worries abour drivers unused to winter conditions.