Winter 'Wimp Factor'

Even a little snow can be a shock to the system to people spoiled by the warm, dry season.

During a more typical winter, a light snowfall like Friday's would hardly get much notice from anyone. But the unseasonable conditions we've enjoyed for so long have made softies of all of us.

A few snowflakes falling gently downtown can seem like the blizzard of the century to the frigidly fainthearted.  Cover your frostbitten ears if you don't want to hear it.

"Are you thinking of the word wimpy?  I mean we have gone that route a little bit, exactly," Harold Schmidt of Sioux Falls said.

"And I'm the first one to admit that I'm a winter wimp," Linda Watts of Sioux Falls said.

It's not like we have to tromp through knee-high drifts. And the winds weren't exactly howling, either.

"Well, I think we're going to survive," Charlie George of Sioux Falls said.

Being a longtime newsman, KELOLAND reporter Perry Groten's covered his share of winter weather. So, he's a hardened veteran to situations like this.

Winter wimps have a paper-thin tolerance for snow and cold.

Perry: What makes a winter wimp?
Watts: Well, I think for me, it's in my blood, I've never liked winter.

We found someone willing to stand up to this first blast of winter in a t-shirt.  And not everyone's wimping-out in the weather.

But winter wimps can find a silver lining.  At least we're getting some much-needed moisture.