People Think It’s Going to Snow Because of a 2013 Story

Don't worry. There's no snow in the forecast for New Jersey or anywhere in the area this weekend.

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Last year’s winter was quite bad: We got more than 60 inches of snow. The temperature was 15 degrees or colder for 15 days. “It may be hard to remember after the winter we’ve just been through,” I wrote in April, “but things haven’t always been this bad.” I had to look at data to be reminded of what warmth was!

Apparently people are still traumatized by the weather. Because today, a 2013 NJ.com story about a possible March 2013 snowfall has people on social media believing snow is in the forecast for this weekend.

Before we go any farther: Don’t worry. It’s not.

For whatever reason, this story about a snowstorm from 2013 is blowing up on FB. If you see it, please check date. http://t.co/dGSSBziVOk — Stephen Stirling (@SStirling) October 1, 2014

That story got enough traffic Stephen Stirling — NJ.com’s weather guy — noticed, and the story has been updated with the following note at the top.

Note: On Oct. 1, 2014, this story began re-circulating on social media. It is dated March 2013. There is no snow in the forecast for early October 2014.

The story appears to have spread mostly on Facebook. A Twitter search shows just a few tweets about it, most of which were cross-posted to Facebook.

@dhm it is going to be a long winter of hype. — PhillyWx.com (@phillywx) October 1, 2014

It’s supposed to rain on Saturday, incidentally, but the high will be 67 degrees.