|
I learned a long time ago, unless you want to get into some type
of argument or worse, never start up a conversation about religion or
politics with anyone, unless you know them very well. I guess that’s
why so many people talk about the weather.
“Hey, how’s it going today?” I nonchalantly said as I walked towards the court house last week.
“Not too bad, but I sure am getting sick of this cold weather,” an acquaintance replies.
“Yes, they’re predicting minus 20 with windchills reaching 35 below for
tonight,” I say, continuing the conversation. “And once it warms up,
we’re gonna get buried with a bunch more snow.”
“This has got to be one of the worst winters in many years. I just
can’t wait for spring to get here…if it ever does,” the passerby
responds, climbing into his vehicle. “Have a good one.”
“You too,” I say, and wave goodbye.
Now, if instead of initiating a conversation about the weather, we
would have started talking about who will receive the Democratic
nomination for President or whom John McCain’s running mate might be,
or worse yet, if the billion dollars a day the U.S. is spending in the
Middle East is a good policy for America, I doubt if our
30-second exchange would have been that brief. And it might not have
been that cordial either.
Speaking of the weather, this really has been one of the more
challenging ones Southeast Minnesota has experienced in many years.
After being “spoiled” with brown Christmases, golfing into January, and
a departure from double digit below zero temps five of the last seven
winters, this one has really bit us in the back ends. It’s probably not
going to be a record breaker right here in Houston County, but our
Cheesehead friends to the east are in the midst of breaking all kinds
of records when it comes to snowfall amounts. Madison is about to
surpass the triple digit mark for snowfall in one season, which is a
record. Closer to home, the Dells and the La Crosse area are both
closing in on record snowfalls as well.
The old timers (I’m nearing that classification myself, probably
already there, depending on whom you talk to) tell me this winter
really isn’t all that harsh. The snow amounts and temps are actually
fairly normal, when comparing data from the past 30 years. But compared
to what we had gotten used to, due to global warming, or just a normal
warming trend, this has been a long, and nasty winter.
After a recent phone conversation with one of my sisters who lives in
Bemidji, the weather we’ve been forced to endure here seems rather
balmy. She reported the air temperature one morning was 47 below and
the windchill was minus 82!!! When you consider the National Weather
Service changed the way windchills are calculated, (about 10 percent
less) those windchills would have been calculated at very close to
minus 100!!! Now, that’s cold.
Thursday morning the weather fact on KTTC TV out of Rochester noted
that on Feb. 21, 1936 the mercury climbed over the zero mark in
Langsford, N.D. for the first time in SIX WEEKS. I realize there’s an
entire country situated north of the United States where folks would be
laughing at us for complaining about our winter. But I can’t even
imagine going six straight weeks on the plains of North Dakota with the
air temperature below zero the entire time. And that’s not figuring in
the windchill.
Spring is always a wonderful time. I think the vast majority of folks
living in the Upper Midwest will welcome the change of seasons with
open arms even a little more this year.
Hey, the weather is not only a good conversation topic, it can also
come in quite handy when penning a column for a weekly newspaper. No
fuss, no muss, no controversial issues about politics, religion, or the
CJC.
 |
