Opinion: North Texas Drops Weather Ball In A Super Way

DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - Well, it's over. The Terrible Towels are packed away, the Cheeseheads are taking Lombardi back home, and a fleet of private jets are returning the celebrities back to their mansions.  So now what?  Perhaps it's time we here in North Texas "man-up" and admit we dropped the ball for our first and possibly last Super Bowl ever.

Keep in mind, it wasn't the weather that killed us.  It was the way we handled the weather.

I know there's nothing worse than a critic who fails to offer any solutions.  So here goes.  I have two words:  SALT AND PLOWS!  And yes, I'm yelling!  The fact that our region doesn't own a single snow plow is an embarrassment.  TxDOT says it brings them in when needed.  Unfortunately, the plows come from West Texas, some eight hours away.  Here's a hint: by the time they lumber in, the damage has already been done.

TxDOT and the cities in our Metroplex argue that we don't need to own plows because we rarely, if ever, get hit with winter storms.  Really?  In case you can't detect my sarcasm, here it is again:  Really?  

We nearly broke a record for snowfall last year, including a foot of the white stuff in just one day.  We had a winter storm in 2006 and an ice storm that crippled the region in late February, 2003.  The latter storm was far worse than what we experienced last week.

I should know.  I covered both.

The moral of the story?  Stop calling every winter storm we have a "freak of nature" or the "storm of the century."  The fact is, winter storms are becoming an annual event in North Texas and to say that we were caught off guard because it was so massive and so unexpected is simply ridiculous.

I realize cost is an issue and in these budget-crunching times, plows are low on the list.  Hey, how 'bout this?  Try detachable plows.  They're cheaper, easy to hook up to a truck and we can kill two birds with one stone.  Plow in the front; lay salt in the back.  And if money is truly an issue, think of all the revenue our local economy lost during Super Bowl week because we failed to effectively respond to the storm.

Speaking of salt, buy it and lots of it!  The city of Dallas claims it uses a 90% sand and 10% salt mixture for its roads.  Wake up!  It's not enough.  Try 50-50, or even 70% salt.  TX-DOT and local municipalities argue that it's corrosive and bad for the environment.  Fair enough.  But it's not like we're coating North Texas with the Dead Sea every week.  If our "freak of nature" storms are happening only once or twice a year, surely we can survive a dash of salt.

Remember, we're talking about the Metroplex.  We love our nice cars.  No self-respecting Dallasite is going to let a filthy layer of salt sully their shiny new Lexus or BMW.  Last time I checked, we still have car washes and street cleaners.

Why do you think our neighbors in the Midwest and the Northeast depend so heavily on salt?  Because it works.  Wow!  What a fascinating concept.

And don't give me that "Meltdown 20" stuff.  The minute the temperature drops down to the mid teens, this marvel of modern science ceases to work.  How funny.  A substance that comes naturally from the ground ultimately trumps a chemical that mankind labored for years to whip up.

There are too many reasons why I love North Texas.  The people are extremely friendly, it's dirt cheap to live here, it's easy to get around and the restaurants are outstanding, just to name a few.  But please, pretty please, stop trying to convince me that our weather is glorious.

News flash: it's okay.

We certainly don't have the worst climate in the country and by no means do we have the best.  Our summers are brutal, our winters are hit and miss and barring the occasional tornado, our springs and falls are pretty darn nice.  On a weather scale of 1 to 10, we sit at about six.

So to all the planners and organizers and politicians who continue to seek out high-profile events, I beg of you, please have a realistic view of our climate when pitching the next Super Bowl or World Cup.  I can hear it already.  Some day, we may very well land the Summer Olympics and as soon as the athletes and visitors start dropping like flies from heat stroke, we'll say, "I don't understand.  Our summers are so mild.  We've never had a heat spell like this.  It's a freak of nature."

Last but not least, please don't commission an expensive study on how we can better prepare for the next time.  It's simple: know your weather, buy snow plows and lay salt.  There.  I just saved North Texas a million dollars.

Buy me a beer and we'll call it even.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of Jay Gormley.