Cedar Point is one of my favorite places. Have you ever been? Their cutesy tagline is “America’s Roller Coast”; Cedar Point is a sprawling theme park located on a peninsula in Northern Ohio. Surrounded by water on three sides, the view from the top of the rollercoasters is spectacular pretty much any direction you look. As engineers are constantly building new coasters at the park, Cedar Point has off and on held records for things like the tallest rollercoaster, steepest drop, fastest, etc.

Anyway. I digress. In doing some research for this month’s column (I also thought about writing about lists because #mombrain and weather events from the last decade since we just entered a new one), I came across the Farmer’s Almanac’s extended forecast for the first portion of 2020. Guess what they’re calling it? Yep – The Polar Coaster. They are predicting a “freezing, frigid, and frosty winter for two-thirds of the country.” The coldest stretch is expected to arrive at the end of this month, and will bring with it not just a lot of snow – but also rain, sleet, and ice. If experience tells us anything, that means there could be a busy winter and spring ahead for all of you! I recall on my recent visit to J.C. Restoration outside Chicago the team talking about how they mobilized during the last Polar Vortex. Are you prepared if your region is hit hard by the bitter cold and the havoc that comes along with it in terms of burst pipes, collapsed roofs, and more?

Furthermore, looking a few months down the road, the Farmer’s Almanac also warns those in the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northeast that winter could hang on a little further into spring this year, and bring with it some wet snow later in the season.

When spring finally does break and The Polar Coaster is gone, we will just be a month or two away from the official start of hurricane season! Don’t wait until these weather events hit to make sure you have a process in place for scaling your business if a disaster does strike your customer base!

And hey, don’t get burned out in the process! We are rounding out that three-part series in this issue, starting on page 8!

Buckle up and enjoy the ride!