How’s the Weather?

We talk about the weather frequently. It’s hot or cold, windy or calm. The skies are blue or clouds drift by a fluffy white or a chilling gray. Every day we have some weather.

Some people depend on weather forecasts, believing that science can conquer all and meteorology works. I’ve done so myself. For a recent vacation I calmly and confidently looked at weather.com and found my destination. I then checked the ten-day forecast. I packed accordingly. I nearly froze my butt off while visiting another state.

The day that was to be partly cloudy turned out to be mostly rainy. The day with a slight chance of rain was partly cloudy. The sunny day was in fact sunny, but a good fifteen degrees cooler than advertised.

These small irritants are nothing compared to what Mother Nature can really pull off. Recently there was a blizzard up north. Lake-effect snow dropped two feet of “chance of rain” on Buffalo. Of course, it didn’t start as snow, so the rain iced up on wires and was covered with heavy, wet snow. The combined weight dropped wires and Buffalo was without power.

I’ve lived through a tornado, a storm that was not a tornado but a fallen tree smashed the car and another tree crushed the air conditioner, a couple earthquakes of low magnitude, and a few hurricanes. I’ve never lived through a volcano or a typhoon. However, while researching storms, I found that hundreds of thousands of people have died directly from storms and hundreds of thousands more have died from the resulting messes after the storms.

The raw power unleashed in a volcanic eruption minimizes any and all attempts to harness power that mere men have achieved. One tsunami can wipe out entire towns and destroy small islands. Earthquakes can level cities.

Lightning strikes the earth somewhere each and every day. But there is nothing more captivating that a good thunderstorm. Watching the light show is fantastic. Stormchasers follow the clouds and photograph or video the funnel clouds. The immense power, the unbridled and unrestrained supremacy of Mother Nature in incontrovertible.

On clear nights, when the stars are like cut glass on the velvet sky, Mother Nature shows a different side. When the moon is full and suspended only inches above the horizon it looks so beautiful, peaceful, tranquil – like one could reach out and touch. Sunrise and sunset with pearlescent clouds reflecting pinks and oranges, glowing bronze and gold, remind one of silk flowing.

The storms remind us of limitless power. Soft breezes on a summer day remind us of limitless gentleness. Mother Nature has it all.