It is winter and the weather is strange.
Except for the freak snowstorm in October, we haven’t had any snow except a light flurry or two. It has been cold and depending on how cold the Neversink River outside my door is either filled with frozen ice floes, or simply frozen along the banks.
But today was strange. I looked out of my window and observed a mild snow flurry. Yet the sky was practically cloudless and blue. I took the dog out for a walk and discovered a small storm cloud on the other side of the building. With the help from a slight breeze, snowflakes were falling. I’ve seen it many times in the summer. I was taught from childhood this was a “sun shower” – yet I can’t recall seeing one in winter, at least not so dramatically.
By the time I finished walking the dog, the flurry was over. But I was reminded that winter in these parts was unpleasantly overdue. So I checked the weather forecast. There is a 30 percent chance of snow tomorrow with a 50 percent chance tomorrow night. But the forecast calls for less than a half inch of snow. Then Saturday holds a 60 percent chance of snow followed by a warm Sunday to melt whatever is left.
At this time last year, and the year before that, the East Coast was pounded by a series of Nor’easters, dumping as much as 20 inches per pop. I have a full-size pickup and the snowplows had piled snow higher than my door.
OK, perhaps El Nino or El Nina or whatever is different this year. My present travel plans call for heading South after the Presidents’ Day weekend. There’s a huge RV show going on that weekend and I wanted to go to it before going on the road.
Last year I left in late Early March. The winter had been brutal, but there was more to come. I had decided to shake down my newly purchased trailer at a campground in New Jersey. The first night it poured all night, and hard. It was like being on the inside of a drum. When I woke up, the rain had stopped, but there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground.
As I then headed south last March, with Gettysburg my first destination, I went through a rainstorm that melted snow in the mountains. It was incredibly scary. It was the first time I had my trailer on an Interstate and it fogged up so much, I had to go around 25 mph and was terrified a car or truck would rear end me. I searched desperately for an exit to wait at, but couldn’t find them in the fog.
When I decided to set a spell in South Georgia, I e-mailed people laughing at them because I was wearing shorts and using the air conditioner. They were shoveling yet more snow.
Somehow, I suspect there will be interesting weather again. Perhaps a blizzard will strand me? Maybe torrential flooding from melting snow will slow me down? I was awed when that happened and saw the upper end of the Potomac River at least 20 feet above normal as I crossed the Maryland-West Virginia border.
But somehow I suspect SOMETHING is going to happen to make life interesting.
