Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Whither Weather?

My father's older lived her adult years in California.  I remember vividly a conversation she had with my mother (who lived her life in Texas) once.

My mother mentioned her fear of earthquakes as a reason she'd never live in California.  My aunt said earthquakes didn't bother her.  What scared her were tornadoes.

Tornadoes were/are a common seasonal occurence in East Texas, where I grew up.  Hell, in almost all of Texas.  Never give 'em a second thought.  Earthquakes, though....

(Or here in Texas when "Snow" means schools, even businesses, close for the day.  We are soundly mocked by this by our northern brethren, but then again, we don't have snow plows or many trucks to salt the roads.  We don't need to.  The stuff melts away within 24 hours.  A day off is all we need.  And I remember once, when I worked in downtown Austin, a snow storm blew through, threatening to close the town and especially the roads to the Hill Country, which are deadly in an ice storm (usually what we got there).  I watched from 13 stories up (it was the 13th floor, not the 14th floor above floor 12) was the grid of downtown Austin turned to gridlock, cars packed bumper to bumper trying to leave in the snow storm.  People were stuck for hours in that traffic.  By the time the streets had cleared it was quitting time.  The traffic had also heated the roads (doesn't take much in Texas) and they were clear.  I drove home in no time.)

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