April Showers

A while back, I wrote about the ineptitude Southerners and Southern cities have for dealing with inclement winter weather.  But something we are accustomed to are the massive spring and early summer storms that roll through, some years worse than others.  This year would be of the latter ilk. In the last few days, the majority of the southern US has been hammered mercilessly with storms, tornadoes, and hail.  We always bounce back, but not without significant loss. 

Alabama seems to have been hit the worst, so far this year.  Both downtown Birmingham and downtown Tuscaloosa, both in central Alabama, were hit by F5 tornadoes.  At the time of this post, 248 have been confirmed dead about 160 of which were in Alabama.  

Here in east Tennessee, we had several smaller tornadoes and a lot hail, much of it tennis ball sized.  Back home in Memphis, much of the city is flooded. Atlanta seems seems to have missed most of the storm, pretty much just getting a lot of rain and heavy winds.  As always, we'll recover, I just hope this isn't simply the beginning to a destructive summer.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...Somewhere Else

Southerners and snow; it's a bit of an odd combination. A few parts of the South are accustomed to a few inches of snow every year or two, but the majority of us just see it with eyes of disdain and/or horror. When there's even a chance of snow, people rush out, stock up on bread and milk, and drive in any lane they see, cowering in fear of the "giant blizzard" that's on its way.

People also seem to lack the basics skills necessary for driving in the snow. It's bad enough when it rains, but a few sightings of the fluffy white stuff and all common sense is lost to oblivion. Granted, because we so seldom get snow, there's not a lot of chance for experience.

Thanks to our sudden weather changes down South, often times the ground isn't cold enough for snow to stick for more than an hour or so. But one of the biggest problems I've encountered with Southern winters is the ice. We always get ice. It seems to almost always rain right before it snows, which leaves a nice wet layer for the snow to rest upon and freeze once the sun goes down. The next day, some of the snow melts, but usually not enough to do anything but make it more treacherous. That freezes again that night, leaving more ice.

All in all, Southerners just do better in warm weather. We have nice weather 9 months out of the year, even if it is a bit on the hot and muggy side sometimes, but that other 3 months just about does us in.