why southern weather makes no sense

In this video (below) there’s a person scheduling the weather for the South (meaning southern United States, from part of Arkansas to Florida). Attending this meeting are the four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. What will happen as they try to figure out what kind of weather the South should have this year? (This is comedy, if it isn’t obvious.)

While that’s exaggerated, there is some truth to it. My favorite part is winter planning a few snowflakes to shut everything down. That actually does happen. I know people in the up north don’t get it, but in the South there are very few snowplows or trucks to salt the roads. Also, southerners typically don’t have much experience in how to drive in snow, so there’s that danger. But it’s all okay, because snow is so rare here, so it’s a special occasion. I have a friend that grew up in the South, then moved to Colorado. She said most people there take snow for granted, because they see so much of it. Many of the people there didn’t have any interest in throwing snowballs or building a snowman (or snow castles or snow monsters, which deserves its own post).

While there is a lack of snow most of the winter, it also means much of the winter is somewhat mild. It does get below freezing at times, but that’s usually just for a day or two, then it’ll be back to the 60s by the end of the week, so you can return to shorts and T-shirts. The only bad part is the middle of summer, where extreme amounts of heat and humidity mix together for a rather unpleasant atmosphere. But it’s just two months that are really bad. The same people made a video about that, too:

If you haven’t experienced southern humidity, then you might not get it. There are summer days where you walk outside and within seconds you are sweating. Sometimes it seems like sweating starts instantly. I don’t know how quickly the body can respond to the change in temperatures, but that’s not something I particularly want to research. (I will add that I am extremely thankful for air conditioning!)

There’s a saying in the South that if you don’t like the weather, just wait a day or two and it’ll change. That is mostly true, except for July and August, where there’s a 99% chance of it being hot and humid every single day. So for those months, the weatherman’s job of making the forecast is easy — really hot, with a 20% chance of thunderstorms, almost every day.

a new perfect day to be outside holiday

The past few days have had near-perfect weather, particularly after summer when it’s too hot with too much humidity.  I’ve heard several people say it’s too good of weather to be inside working, and I’ve had that thought myself.  So what we need to start is a floating holiday for each Spring and Fall that’s based on the weather.  At least once each season, when the weather is perfect, everyone should get the day off to do whatever they want outside.  Various groups could sponsor pick-up games for sports, where people could just show up and play ball (football, basketball, baseball, tennis, etc.), and there could be picnics and tail-gate parties (because grilling would be ideal at these times).

Somebody needs to make this happen…  (Hint: If one of our state representatives were to get this started, I’m sure they would pick up some votes for actually doing something cool that the people want.)

it feels good outside today

It feels really good outside today.  It finally feels like fall / autumn.  So I went outside this morning, enjoying the near-70 temperatures with a slight breeze.  I walked around the block, and it felt really good.  Then I decided to jog the next time around the block, but all of a sudden it got really hot and sweaty for some reason, so I went back inside.  Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned here…