How About This Weather
Many things in our world come and go. Weather is always with us in some form or another. Weather can
dictate how we dress, what activities are conducted, and some times our emotions and attitudes. Many people
like me, feel better on sunny days as opposed to cloudy days. Weather has been talked about, written about, and
some times sung about. In the 1960s the Beach Boys did songs about the sun fun and surfing in thier native
Sourthern California. In America we have a television station devoted to nothing but weather. We also have
much weather lore and sayings. Some of my favorite ones are if the cows are laying down it is going to rain
if you count the number of foggy mornings in August you will know how many days it will snow in the winter. I
have also heard that for every day over ninty degrees in the summer there will be an equivalent number of below
zero in the winter. An old Scottish saying tells us that if Christmas day is sunny winter will last longer. One of our
best know weather predictors is Paxatonia Phil a ground hog from Pennsylvania. The story is that every year on
February second this ground hog emerges from his hole to predict the end of winter. If he sees his shadow he
goes back in his hole and winter lasts six more weeks. If he does not see his shadow there will be an early spring.
This is a well known tale what is not as well known is that in 1887 a member of the Ohio state legislature proposed
a bill that would move ground hog day from February back to January in order to have an earlier spring. The bill
must not have passed, I doubt it was even voted on, as ground hog day is still in February.
In south eastren Ohio, where I live, our weather is usually uneventful. Our biggest problems
are periodic flooding and occasional blizzards. Tornadors have occured here but not on the scale seen in
westren Ohio. The weather here can change quickly. Just the other day it was pouring rain at four p.m. ten
minutes later the sun aws shining bright. Guess thats why people say if you do not like the weather around here
stick around five minutes it will change. We are fortunate to have four distinct seasons here although they
some times blend into each other. Each season has its good points and some not so good points. I always
tell people that if we did not have winter we would not appreciate summer.
Now a word about one of the most maligned people in our society the weather man.
This person gets blame when he is wrong but no credit when he is right some thing like a base ball umpire.
I hope you have enjoyed this brief look at weather and I hope it does not rain on
your parade. Thank you for reading this article.