Of course it happened.
You just knew we weren’t going to skate through winter without a seasonal outburst of weather. Sure, it’s been fun having so many days with dry air and near record high temperatures, but we live in the Missouri Ozarks, and it would be highly irregular for January to pass without some January-like conditions.
But wow, this time was pretty unusual, right? I mean, having snow falling for about 36 hours while the temperature was around 10 degrees just isn’t how it usually goes down.
And how about Sunday morning? It was like, “gosh when is this going to stop?” There was already a foot of snow covering the ground at our house and it just kept going and going until another inch or two had accumulated.
And then there was Monday morning. As if the storm hadn’t already asserted its dominance, the mercury drops to minus 10.
Scotty (the Scottie) wasn’t having it. As is his morning routine, I opened the door for him to go outside and do his business, but he put on the brakes and backed up when he felt such a blast of frigid air hit his snout.
I can’t blame him. Cold is cold, and it was cold!
Being a constant observer of human nature, I always like how winter weather is capable of bringing out some of the most classic behavior.
My favorite might be the way so many folks suddenly become meteorologists. Before a significant bout of winter hits, it’s not uncommon to hear one person say, “it’s apparently going to go south of us” and then another say, “I heard it’s mainly going to stay north of us.”
I typically don’t add my two cents to such comments, but I do recall thinking (more than once), “hmmm, the report I saw had Texas County in the middle of the storm’s path.”
People also tend to lose their memories when it comes to winter weather.
Comments some folks make highlight that, like “it’s going to go around us like it always does,” and “we always get ice in January.” In my mind, I’m like, “I have photographic evidence of the 10-inch snowfall we had at this time last year.”
But that’s all OK. The weather always is what it is, regardless of how people want to spin it or pretend to be an authority about it. It’s not based on complicated patterns or guesswork; it’s just part of that big overall plan that God is constantly in charge of.
And here in Missouri, that can mean darn near anything, as this winter has strongly reminded us.
Anyway, with February about to transpire, it will be interesting to see what the Lord has in store.
Will we go back to strangely (but wonderfully) high temperatures and not see rain until April, or will we need to keep the heavy jackets out and keep the fireplace stocked?
Time will tell – even if the actual result gets forgotten.