Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Snow Is In The Forecast for North Texas

Thursday night the current forecast is for a 20 percent chance of snow after midnight.

Why is Texas so far behind so much of the rest of the world?

As in, when is that Global Warming thing going to hit this part of the planet?

When I moved here I left Washington in heavy rain, I arrived in Fort Worth in heavy rain. About a week after arrival in Texas I got my first lesson in how cold it can get here.

About noon we had gone to the Fort Worth Stockyards for Mexican buffet at the now long gone Riscky Rita's Mexican Cantina. Heading out to Rita's the temperature was pleasant, no need for a coat. After an hour and a half, or so, in Rita's, we stepped outside to discover the temperature had dropped to near freezing, with a hard wind making it feel below freezing.

That night the temperatures dropped to 15, or thereabouts. We did not know what to do about the pipes, the pool plumbing or the 2 cows that had been left behind by the previous owner. By the next morning I was to experience my first Ice Storm. I'd never seen an Ice Storm before. I'd heard of them, but I had no idea they were such a bad thing.

That first bout of Texas icy winter lasted several days. And then it bounced back into the 70s and 80s. My first few winters in Texas that seemed to be the pattern. A few days of cold, then back in shorts again.

But the past several winters in Texas have not followed that pattern. Which one would think would not be the case if there really was some Global Warming going on.

I guess I better get my cross country skis out in case there is some slick white stuff to go sliding on Friday morning. It's highly unlikely, but it's good to be prepared for all contingencies.

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