You Know That It's a Portent of Doom When:
The forecasters spend the entire news broadcast the night before reminiscing about The Blizzard of '78, and how it got everyone particularly badly because none of the forecasters saw it coming, and conclude with, "but tomorrow's storm is going to be pretty small".
(Okay, yes -- this one is relatively minor. But the local Catholic parish church just announced that they've cancelled Bingo for tonight, so you know we've gotten at least somewhat wallopped...)