Powerball

When I see individuals like these protesters blocking ambulances and flying confederate flags (knowing darn well the implication behind it), their anger clearly goes well beyond "Dey terk er jerbs!!!" Let's call out the huge elephant in the room. The stats show this virus is disproportionately hitting people of a certain ethnicity the hardest, in a city where that ethnicity makes up over 80% of the population. To them, this group of people and the city they live in are perfectly expendable for their own selfish needs of keeping open a "multi-generation" business that only existed since 2002, or gardening / motorboat racing in snow and 31*F weather, as I'm certain the typical protester at this spectacle didn't have pleasant opinions about the city in question nor the ethnic group in question in thr first place. As Governor Whitmer succinctly stated, while they're out protesting the stay-at-home order, they may well have just made the pandemic worse and it will now have to be extended even longer (something she was trying to prevent). I have a disabled, elderly mother in Detroit (I.E. one who would be a prime candidate for contracting COVID-19) who is frightened to death given she's already had multiple health scares. Obviously, she wants this to pass ASAP. So this does hit close to home even for me and forgive me if I don't all that sorry for the protesters who are doing everything to prolong it. As far as the economic impact, most of us are taking a hit to one extent of another (so what they're experiencing isn't all that special). I've been forced to take a 10% paycut and 2 week furlough myself. It sucks, but I'm not out here defying orders intended to minimize the spread of this virus like some petulant child because I'm upset about it. And the reality is you live in a heavily blue collar state tied to an extremely cyclical industry. Thus, you're always going to be hit harder than others when economic downturns happen (it is what it is). If you don't like it, find another state to live in or another industry/field to work in. Furthermore, as far as someone bringing up what Canada is doing, I couldn't help but see all of the Trump / Pence posters in the photos. I personally voted for the candidate(s) who would have done a lot more to help them through this tough time economically than a measely one-time $1,200 check (and even push for programs similar to the ones in Canada). Yet, they're still proudly supporting a "leader" and his administration who just orchestrated the largest transfer of wealth in history to the professional / ownership class. So how much can you really do to help folks who insist on voting against their best interests? Ok, ranting done.

What I will say is that defense, as usual, seems to be the only real safe haven. For one, the government mandates that contractors maintain a certain staff level for national security purposes. But also, that industry's main customer is one that can print/borrow money and operate with a deficit infinitely. Aerospace is mixed. The military side is still humming along, but the commercial side (where the customers are Delta, Boeing, etc.) is getting decimated.

Auto Sales have already cratered to near Great Recession lows, and will no doubt be even lower by the end of April. Also, the ways things are going at Ford, they'll be in bankruptcy court by the Summer. They have a furniture CEO running the company who's completely out of his element, their stocks are now rated junk and they're begging for things such as another Cash for Clunkers. Ford's U.S. Sales Chief Wants a New "Cash for Clunkers" Initiative: Here's Why It Won't Help Ford’s Debt Was Cut to Junk. This Is Why the Stock Is Rising. GM and Chrysler are somewhat better because they got rid of much of their debt in bankruptcy and GM specifically has exited the world to fluff up its balance sheets. But with auto sales in both the US and China (GM's primary markets) being an unmitigated disaster, and the losses they were still recovering from after the plant shutdowns last fall, they're not far behind from being in Ford's position. And then there's the city of Detroit. They already have a $300 million dollar budget hole to backfill, and that's going to mean more cuts to the city's already bare bones services.

It's just too bad that they're going to take away hospital beds from thoughtful people when they inevitably catch the virus.

The SPC is sticking with a moderate outlook in the latest update.

Also yes.

To my knowledge, yes. EDIT: Come to think of it, a PDS watch might have been issued on 3/28 in IL/IA/MO.

I'm just going to leave this here for purposes. It was being discussed over at SouthernWX for what owuld also be an historic severe weather outbreak for the Southeast US.

Well, there was the *HUGE* exception of the March 2008 blizzard. Still bitter about that one.

Given the reports coming in now out of Detroit proper and Roseville are 5.8" and 6.8" respectively, I'm going to call BS on that 3" report from Grosse Pointe.

It looks like your favorite spotter out of Grosse Pointe has come in with his lowball report of 3".

Impressive to see that you guys are going to get another warning criteria snowfall in the "warm sector" of a system, given it also happened not too long ago and how unusual it is.

Even down there, where the average yearly snowfall is a whopping 2", there's plenty of banter about the lack of winter weather from fellow enthusiasts. Yet, what's funny about it though is that they would kill to experience the "less than impressive" Winter you guys are having this season (that was, in small part, why SnowlessinCarollton was excited to come up to your neck of the woods). I'm just amused by the reactions about this current storm system along with responses from folks like beavis1729 about winter as a whole followed by michsnowfreak coming in to bring folks in from off the ledge (and yes, he's not wrong). I don't have to be reminded that I did a ton of whining about the lack of Big Dog storms when I was still there, but that aside, even I will acknowledge you all have had an overall impressive stretch of winters in the last 15 years. So the feelings of despair from some clashing with michsnowfreak's relentless positivity in somewhat bad winters that could be much worse intrigues me, and I'd hate to see what the discourse is like if one of those sub-20" winters happened.

A part of me is interested in seeing you all experience a truly awful winter (talking 1930s or 1990s awful). Detroit and much of the Midwest hasn't had one since weather forums and social media became a thing. So I can just imagine the meltdowns would be on a whole 'nother level of cringeworthy, especially from normally positive michsnowfreak.

It's happened plenty of times, although I can't name the storms off the top of my head.

That is impressive, considering you've been on the southern edge of the best banding.

I've been lurking and waiting to see how long it would take you to get hyped up. It's absurdly early for a snow event this significant (then again, so was the Halloween snow event for Chicago). When's the last time DTW saw 4"+ of snow this early in the season?

Don't hold your breath for that (2 weeks out).

This one's a real doozy...

Gotta say, while I'm generally good with no snow, getting whiffed to the south by a 12"+ snowstorm (in GA of all places) would definitely piss me off.

I see that a long lost stranger is making appearances again.