Wednesday night’s snow storm gave Facebook doctors a needed break from spewing anti-mask and conspiracy rhetoric about COVID-19.

It seems they know just as much about snow removal and the inner-workings of PennDOT as they do about the CDC and WHO.

Weather predicting is a science that we frequently laugh at and make fun of. Who hasn’t made the claim that they would lose their job if they were wrong as often as the weatherman?

It doesn’t matter what season it is; the weather bureau is not able to be pinpoint accurate in the prediction of extreme weather.

Wednesday night into Saturday morning, some of us had 10 inches of snow dumped in our driveways. Our scanning of the Pittsburgh newscasts had convinced us that if we were unlucky we could get maybe 4 inches of the white stuff that would need removed from our private property by tractor, snow blower, plow, or shovel. A nuisance but manageable.

But instead — for those of us who think of snow as something that should only exist on Christmas cards — we got clobbered.

That leads us to what PennDOT has to contend with. They have bigger shovels attached to larger vehicles and much longer and larger surfaces to clear of snow and ice than most of us.

They rely on the same forecasters as the public. Sometimes, like last night, they get clobbered too.

But the internet doctors flip their internet medical degrees over and right there, on the back of those degrees of higher learning, is the CDL driver certifications with specialization in snow removal.

Without a moment’s hesitation, because they don’t have a mask on to remove first, they are primed to scream “PDOT is terrible. PDOT is worthless. PDOT is never prepared.”

Those are the nice comments. (Remember we are talking about how keyboard warriors act on Facebook).

Seldom is the time taken to say, “We sure hope those guys out there trying to make our roads safe are keeping themselves safe first.”

It isn’t often that any internet road engineers point out that you can’t plow until the snow falls. But as we said, at least the storm gave Facebook something to gripe about besides spreading the unqualified and unrealistic “facts” that they learned from another Facebook expert who happens to be unemployed and living in a relative’s basement.

So we say to those workers out in the cold, braving dangerous weather conditions so we can coast to work hours later: Thank you and stay safe. And please wear your mask.

— RV