Sure, I know all about clouds and how raindrops are
formed. They taught me that stuff in high school. What confuses me is that it
has been raining all morning and the temperature is in the mid 20’s. Everywhere
else I have lived, when it is below freezing and it is raining, we call it snowing.
In Iowa, if it was even close to freezing temperatures, the precipitation would
come as snow. What’s the deal in Memphis?
Unfortunately I was out in the rain this morning and
it was hard rain. By that I mean it was raining hard but it was also raining
hard rain. There were great big old almost solid drops. You could tell that
either they had recently been ice or had just barely missed the chance to
arrive as sleet. I felt the need to pull my fire helmet off the shelf and give
my poor old bald head some protection. For the romantic types who like to walk
in the rain, you can forget that romantic notion today. A walk in the rain
today is painful.
I have lived in Memphis for over a year and earlier
this week was the first time the powers that be issued a high alert fire
warning and told us not to burn anything out of doors. I was surprised because
while I have lived here, rain has never seemed to be in short supply. Late last
spring the Mississippi River seemed to get mighty close the overflowing its
banks. Besides being unseasonably cold, this winter has seemed pretty moist to
me. And just today it has rained just over one inch. That should cancel the no
burn order. But this town does seem to run a little short on snow.
I realize that Memphis is located in the Mid-South.
But still, where is the snow? Last winter, one day we had snow flurries and
less than a half inch of accumulation. Listening to the natives, one would have
thought it was a blizzard and all of us were in imminent danger of dying a
frozen death in the catastrophe. Maybe that’s it: perhaps the people of Memphis
have such a profound fear of snow that generates so much energy that we heat it
as it falls and turn the snow back into rain. That’s my guess. What’s yours?
Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights
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