If you live somewhere for awhile, you develop Weather Memory. It’s the skill that allows you to be the person, at parties, who rains on the parade of others because you remember that every year, for the last twelve years, it has rained on the day of the town parade. Or some such dealio.
I have Weather Memory, but only for the Washington DC area. Well, OK, I also have it for the Lagos, Nigeria area, but that’s because the same weather appeared about 10 months out of the year when we lived there: a steady stream of hot, humid, hazy days punctuated by rare and torrential rainstorms. The other two months flip-flopped the pattern: a steady stream of torrential rainstorms, punctuated by rare, hot-humid-hazy days.
In D.C., however, I can tell you that it will rarely snow on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, no matter how hard you wish for it. Promising your first-born to Santa doesn’t even work—I can attest to that.
I can also tell you that you are wasting your hard-earned money when you book that beach condo on the Eastern Shore for Memorial Day Weekend. Nine years out of ten, that weekend in the Mid-Atlantic region is gloomy and chilly and often rainy. But a lot of people forget that, and return on the evening of Memorial Day pissed off that they sat in traffic both ways and never even took off their shirts on the beach.
But I don’t have Weather Memory for Iowa yet, which leads me to do stupid things like give up snow and ice for Lent. But others, Sally of Tip of the Iceberg, for example, are better versed in the Iowa weather pattern. Sally posted a comment today and said, “Girls’ State Basketball is coming up and we always get an ice storm over that week. (Well, 99.9% of the time anyway.)”
Don of an Iowa Garden also warned me in a recent post that I shouldn’t get too cocky about the weather. Don said, “…weather in Iowa is fickle at best, and March often sees our worst blizzards; the worst March snowstorm I remember was in my boyhood and saw snow so deep that people tied red cloth to their car radio aerials so that they could see each other coming at intersections.”
Great. Just great. Let me just state for the record that if it gets to the point that I’m having to tie stuff to my car so people can see me driving around, the only cloth I’m going to be waving is a white one, and I’m going wave it on the way to the airport, where I will buy a ticket to a warmer location.
And for those of you not obsessively checking The Weather Channel’s site (like some Iowa-based gardeners I may know), Sally’s warning was correct. Not 10 hours after I posted about giving up snow and ice for Lent, I began receiving weather emails that might have well borne the subject line: Things Genie Can’t Control. There’s a ginormous storm headed our way, bringing ice AND snow. Together. All weekend long.
Hey, Genie! Thanks for the shout-out! :)
Sally, you’re welcome. And thanks for the warning!
I used to think I could predict the weather but as the world continues to change it becomes harder to know what we have coming
Oh, but it’s so much more exciting when it’s unpredictable!
Now we’re getting rain in Indiana, too! I just hope the temperatures stay above freezing. I’ve got places to go this evening. But unlike you, I’ve lived in the midwest my whole life, so I KNOW BETTER than to think that the worst of winter is behind us be late February. But every year I hope!
Carol, I hope you get the temps you’re looking for today so you don’t have to cancel your evening plans. Unfortunately, we have evening plans that we can’t cancel, so we’re probably in for a little bit of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in a few hours…
Genie:
Please, oh, please, send the snow to me. I’ve never made a snowman or been in a snowball fight. But, my Mama says that’s what living in Tidewater is all about…
Reilly
P.S. I loved the Superfriends paper and so did my Daddy.
When my family lived in northeastern Iowa, we had a mid-April storm. School was cancelled for an entire week — on Monday for the foot of snow that fell, by Thursday for the mud that meant the school buses couldn’t pick up the farm kids. In April!!
Reilly, thanks so much for stopping by! I did what I could — the storm’s headed toward the East Coast, but unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s going to dump any snow on your area. I think your Mom’s right…you’re so lucky to leave near the ocean, but that means it’s very rare that you’ll see snow. But keep your fingers crossed, and maybe one day it’ll happen!
Alanna, yikes. If we end up with a foot of snow in April this year, I’m going to hide under my bed. That’s impressive!
This last storm reminds me of the DC weather is gleefully left behind, or so I thought! Damp, heavy snow and ice that turned to ugly slush when melting. Ick. (Oh, I like your ise of the term “weather memory.”
Robin, yeah…one of the interesting revelations I had here was how light and powdery the snow gets when it’s so much colder! It’s definitely better than DC snow, that’s for sure…
This is slightly off-topic…
This ugly winter has had me surrounding myself with seed and garden catlogs, anxious to start my Iowa garden. As you know, I’m also a DC transplant – just arrived in August. Can you suggest any good resources to help me with my new garden, specifically vegetables. I’m not sure which varieties are suitable for the Iowa weather.
Thanks!
Robin, it’s not off-topic at all. I think all of us have our eyes on the prize of Spring…
I highly recommend Seed Savers, which is probably even worth the trip from Manchester. I haven’t been up there myself yet, but I’m planning to make the trip closer to the start of the gardening season. Still, their catalog is lovely, and they’re a great resource. Plus, they know the climate here quite well.
I hope that helps!