Meteorology

If you ever live in Cincinnati you have to enjoy weather in its many forms, or you'll probably be miserable at some time or another. In Cincinnati you experience it all. I guess having lived there most of my life I gained an appreciation for the different seasons and all that they had to bring. In the Spring, you had rains, wind, and comfortable temperatures; in Summer, you had heat and big thunderstorms; in Fall, you had cool crisp days; in Winter you had cold and snow. The weather enabled me to enjoy activities from flying kites to sledding down the hill next to our house. And I should add, summer movies are never as enjoyable as those enjoyed in the cool theaters when you do not have air conditioning at home!

My love of weather watching also stemmed from my grandmother, who supplied me with the essentials: "Red in the morning, sailors warning; red at night, sailors delight," "Watch out for rain when the leaves of the trees looked turned over," etc. She also had a little German "weather house" exactly like the one pictured below, where a woman in a sunny outfit would appear on nice days and a man dressed for rain would come out the door on gloomy days.


At a young age I had my plastic yellow rain gauge to tell me how much rain we had, and I always watched the weather forecast with my grandfather, my favorite weatherman was Ira Joe Fisher.

I have always loved looking at the clouds in the sky to gauge what weather they may bring, as well as to try to see pictures in their various forms. Sometimes I have envisioned them as giant mountains. While in Japan I learned many of the cloud names in Japanese as I asked my Japanese missionary colleague what they were during our daily bike rides. My favorite cloud remains the nyudogumo meaning beautiful cloud, better known as the cumulonimbus.

Perhaps crazy, but true, I get excited by the possibility of inclement weather. The possibility of a major snow storm, tornadoes, and now that I live on the east coast, hurricanes. Don't get me wrong, I take no pleasure at the loss of life or property, but I do stand in awe of the power of Nature. I even miss the big thunderstorms of Cincinnati bringing thunder and lightening so loud and so bright that a sleeping mind first misjudges as an attack.

One last snow storm story, this time in DC during the Blizzard of 2003. In our neighborhood we had at least 3 feet of snow pile up, which shut down the city for almost a week, so snow days as an adult! Boy did that excitement wear off fast as I had to cross mountains of un-shoveled snow and ice to get to the metro for weeks after. I also had to shovel multiple parking spaces as out "nice" neighbors with SUVs chose to not shovel at all and then take my shoveled spaces. It may have been a different year, but I remember shoveling 8 spaces after a storm. Anyway, the remnants of the 2003 snow storm lasted through April, before finally melting away.

I remember one big blizzard in Cincinnati, I am not sure it was the big one of 1978, but it would not have been more than a year or two after. My mom, sister, and I had gone to a Christmas party and when we left the roads were covered in snow. My mom's green CJ5 even was stuck in a ditch and a guy came on a snowmobile to come help us out.

Another snow storm was in 1998 or 1999, when I was commuting to attend Miami University. A snow storm of 12 to 18 inches left me stranded at the university in Oxford, Ohio. I went to the local Wal-mart, the only store in town, to get supplies to include a change of clothes. Luckily some students in the dorm for foreigners got me into to sleep on a couch in their study. I remember waking to a Japanese girl tucking me in, and then again in the morning when another Japanese girl brought me breakfast. As you can see, even bad weather can be good.

I hav always been fascinated by tornadoes. I have seen the eery green coloring and felt the thick atmosphere that exists during a tornado producing storm. Numerous time did I get awakened by my mother to get to the basement after the air raid sirens signaled a tornado warning, I was always grumpy when I was aroused in the middle of the night and cared not that a tornado would come. We listened to the radio announce a tornado heading our way, just to veer away in the last few seconds. I have seen the mystery of their destruction, as a tornado ripped away a convenience store, but left all the food neatly stacked on the shelves.

As far as hurricanes, we experienced the influence of Hurricane Isabel in 2003. While many of our neighbors did not, we maintained power. We seemingly were in a small bubble that was left unaffected. I did not understand why my work was shut down until I started driving and viewing the huge trees that had been felled by the storm. We shopped in the dark at a Target that had just enough power to run a register or two. Of course they kept all doors but one locked, to avoid any looting. It was sad to see all of the freezer sections of grocery stores locked with thick chains by the fire department. During hurricane season, I like to track these storms via the National Hurricane Center.

As long as I have a radio and access to the internet, I will enjoy tracking these big storms. I will continue to enjoy the variety that the Lord provides, cherishing the calm to breezy, sunny to overcast, 70 degree days along with the windy, cloudy, sub 32 degree days.