Mom and I looked at each other across the darkened living room last evening. We both sat in silence as we listened for another. First a flash to the southwest and then a rolling far-off boom. "It's going to storm," we both say.
It's not as though it wasn't expected. During the afternoon, peaks of sun drove the temperature up to 72°, a balmy spring-like day (the record was 76° in 1909). The winds were light and clouds were the only spoiler.
By the time Mom and I came home from a visit with Mae and Charles, I walked into the backyard and enjoyed the sun sinking behind the pines. It did not have the look of rain in the near future.
The night before was wet: 0.39". By early evening the rain had set in again and it came in waves. On radar, thin bands of red, running southwest/northeast, slid east-northeast on both sides of us and spared us the heaviest weather.But the lightning sputtered all around and the thunder rolled across the open fields. A tornado watch was in effect to 8 p.m. Another 0.38" fell.
This has been a memorable November for its ease. We are being played with, I'm afraid. I always remember Dad talking about the Great Blizzard of 1950, how early November was exceedingly warm and how the great storm arrived in the late month. Dad and Mom, and Mae and Charlie, too, were going to Clifty Falls (Madison, IN) after Thanksgiving in honor of Mom and Dad's anniversary (they were married 11/24/1945). They dropped me off at my grandparents and set off. They were turned around by the storm and came home and stayed at our home on 11th Street instead.
I meanwhile, enjoyed my time at grandma and grandpa's, riding through the house on my grandfather's shoulder, looking out the front window at the snow piling up at a ferocious clip.
And so I think of that month 61 years ago and wonder whether this one offers some similarities?
A warm, wet mid-November day with lightning and thunder and a tornado watch to boot.. What can that spell for the forecast but snow? Lots of snow.
No comments:
Post a Comment