Trending
Enough, already! I don't know about you, but I have had just about all I can take of these late summer storms. It's bad enough we can't get just a gentle rain to water the lawn and
gardens. The rain comes in sideways and pelts the ground with machine gun force.
The middle-of-the-night thunderstorms are enough to make anyone queasy. The last few have jolted us out of bed.
I don't mean to pick on our local weather forecasters, yet they tend to put us in panic mode more times than not. I get it. They are only trying to prepare us for what might happen. Unfortunately, there are so many times lately that they have been way off the mark.
These forecasts have us constantly checking the radar on our phones and TV only to watch a storm headed directly for us to turn away or dissipate. It's maddening.
When you tell us to prepare for the worst and nothing happens I suppose we should be grateful. However, tell all those folks planning outdoor activities who either must change their plans or in some cases, get rained on when none was predicted.
It's a thankless job being a weather prognosticator. You will never please everyone all the time. And despite all the meteorological tools available to them, Mother Nature overrides the best of them.
Let's face it. The things we have been seeing fall from the sky or rake across our homesteads have been pretty unusual. The sheer amount of wind and rain has puzzled many seasoned weather people. Don't even get me started on the lightning shows that have peppered the sky.
Not since the late 1970s have I recalled such violent and vibrant shows of light coming from the heavens during these recent thunderstorms. Add to that the teeth-rattling thunder and there goes another sleepless night. It makes you wonder what we as humans are doing to deserve such spectacles.
As I prepared this column early Wednesday morning, AccuWeather called for "a thunderstorm this afternoon." I guess I will wait and see before I water my plants. Now if I could only find my umbrella ...
Heather Ziegler can be reached via email at hziegler@theintelligencer.net.