I believe it was Nash Roberts who first intrigued me about the weather. That and the number of times we would prep for a hurricane or crack the downstairs windows in a strong thunderstorm. Nash Roberts was a tall man with a cowboy hat who I saw sometimes at the malt stand in Folsom and other times on our television set holding a black marker. My earliest memories of the weather take me to him.
I also remember walking into the country store at the caution lights in Kat Kaw and hearing old farmers sitting in the rockers talking about the weather. They knew it from the sky, the rain, the dew, the clouds. These were the men who actually knew the use of a weathervane that was perched on barn roofs. And over those years knowing the weather just became a part of who I was living in Louisiana.
I never thought about this much until my coaching partner at work moved down her from Las Vegas where she had lived all her life. I've been to that city and doubt I will ever return. I do remember the remarkable heat and dry air. What I did not realize is that is pretty much the weather unless it is remarkably cold with dry air. Her intense panic as we prepared for a line of storms and a rain event caught me by surprise. And then the next week her panic over what exactly it meant to winterize her home. It never occurred to me how much humidity affects our world down south and the need to explain this to a newcomer.
I literally had to sit down with her and show her a weather radar. I explained to her the warm fronts that push up from the Gulf of New Mexico and the cold fronts that push down from the north. I explained to her how when these collide, they push up and we then see hail and cloud rotation that could hit ground and form tornados. I had to explain to her how to store up on batteries, bottled water, flashlights, and ice. And my newest hack is to keep those electric candles in all the closets with batteries, so I don't have to worry about a fire.
No sooner did we get her through this rain event than we were being told to winterize the homes and get ready to hunker down. We had to explain to her how to wrap the pipes, and not to order the expensive kits online, but to just get old sheets, towels and duct tape. We explained to her how to keep the faucets dripping and once again prep with bottled water, flashlights, and candles. She asked if this meant there would be a chance of tornadoes again and the science teacher said no then explained to her the outcome of rain that freezes on powerlines for several hours.
Over the years I have heard multiple explanations as to why people are fearful of living down south. Aside from alligators, flood waters, bird size mosquitoes, and snakes, I guess the weather is quite a contender. We just don't put much thought into it because down south we have four seasons and sometimes all within one week. Most of us have our routines. We have our small greenhouses and old rags. We wrap the pipes, run the water, and empty the gutters. We store up the canned foods, fill up the tubs with water, pull out the generator and get it gassed up and ready to go. We notice the buttermilk sky saying it's gonna be a cold front. And the geese roosting early. We know that March will roar in like a lion and skip out like a lamb. And that April showers will bring May flowers. And Mother Nature will do her best. I would take that over a desert any day.
