Weather or Not

Weather or Not

I will be a weatherman in my next life.

Truly I think I have always meant to be a weatherman... or more accurately a weather woman. Weather has been a part of my life from almost the beginning, weather in extremes. I am connected in a mystical way.

My first real encounter with weather was at the age of 4. At this tender age I met my first hurricane head on. For whatever reason I was left alone in my parents home on that fateful day. My babysitter had gone off and I'm sure she left instructions to remain in the house until my parents returned from work.

I, being a kid, totally ignored those instructions.

The wind was blowing hard, the trees were whipping back and forth and my childish mind ignored the warnings and went out the back door. The winds were the precursors of much worse to come. The problem came when I tried to go back inside, the screen door was held tightly shut by the wind and a mere 4 year old didn't have the strength to move it.

My first encounter with extreme weather left me huddled against the side of the house for what seemed like hours. Terrified, dealing with Hurricane Hazel as a mere tot and facing weather's wrath alone.

As a young woman I dealt with the storm of the century... a title given to every large storm that seems to come along. This one was different and deserved the name... it was the heart of winter and this storm brought intense wind and snow. Nearby bodies of water (Lake Ontario, Lake Erie) presented the storm with the opportunity to become a star and it did. Yet no matter how ferocious, winter storms don't receive names and this one is remembered only as... the winter of '75. 

At that time I cared for horses and their safety and welfare was my great concern. Roads were closed, completely impassable... some used snowmobiles to get about and the drifts were so high that they had to duck not to hit phone and electric wires. Snow drifts were to the second floor of the barn, there was no way to enter or exit from below. It was a nightmare few days but the horses and I survived and as with all storm events, time heals all.

A few years later I went camping with a girlfriend. Two more unequipped camping buddies you never did see. Inept would describe us perfectly. Yet God protects fools and idiots. 

My friend and I drove from Canada to Vermont. As horse-aholics, we visited every public horse farm on the way, totally oblivious to the forecasts of dire weather to come. As day neared end we found a park and set up a campsite. It was dark when we arrived and the wind was blowing hard. We would have provided a comedic show to other campers if we had been able to see any about. Our tent suspended from a wire form which consisted of two arching poles which criss-crossed in the middle. This gave us one leg at each of the four corners of our tent. Problem was one of the arching poles was shorter than the other, having lost one segment of the pole. Our giggles were lost in the wind as we assembled our tent.

We set up our three legged, lopsided, leaning tent and went to bed. Tired from the drive and all the talking only two girlfriends are capable of doing. The wind grew stronger and stronger and we slept blissfully unaware.

Morning arrived and we staggered out of our tent to look look for the bathroom... only to discover that what was left of our camping community was gone or blown to pieces. We were the only tent to survive. Not because of our deep knowledge of the universe but because in the dark we set up our camp in the only protected spot around. God was doing his watching over idiots that day. It turns out our choice of campground helped too... our choice was based on what we could find late at night. The tent site was in a hollow with tall hills around. There was also a forest of tall trees at one end, the place we were given to camp. Together these combined to save two fools where many others suffered from the wrath of Hurricane Agnes.

Later I would move to Arizona and to a small ranch in the Tucson Mountain foothills. To get into town (Tucson) we drove down Ina Road into the valley created by the Santa Cruz River. A wide bridge spanned the barely three foot wide river.

A perfect storm came to be, one which killed many and destroyed a good part of the area. Many days of rain from a stalled low combined with the effects of a hurricane to the south hit the city hard. Deluges of rain fell from the storm and water rushed northward from the southern hurricane as the Santa Cruz river, like many Arizona rivers, flows north from Mexico.

Our sleepy 3 foot wide river was now a mile wide and... raging. The water saturated mountains couldn't absorb the rainfall and it rushed down to the valley below. The river was at flood already from what came from the south. Hundreds of homes were lost as river banks gave way and buildings plunged into the torrents of water. Bridges were swept away including most of ours and our only access to town. I watched from the safety of the foothills wondering at the power of it all and knew I would remember the storm of '83.

Summer in Arizona is a special season. It is very hot but that heat is what brings the life giving rain to the desert. Yet the heat has incredible power as well. The ground dries, all moisture is gone and desert breezes begin to twirl. As it gets hotter and drier the whirls become mini tornadic spirals which race across the landscape. Some grow into immense destroyers of all before them. 

One such storm arrived at lunch time on the ranch. We were in the ranch house but heard it coming. It sounded like a jet airplane outside the window or a train roaring past. My partner and I ran out the door in time to watch as the storm touched down in the middle or our stable yard. Our barn lifted straight upward, 50 feet in the air, and blew to pieces. Fence posts sucked out of the ground and flew everywhere, the shed row roof disappeared... a giant saguaro cactus was sliced in half by flying roof metal shrapnel.

It lasted about 3 minutes... but seemed a lifetime. All our ranch buildings were destroyed yet the horses were not injured. Seventeen ran terrified into the desert but 10 more remained. None had more than simple scratches when it could have been so much worse. We gratefully rounded up our lost animals and made plans to rebuild.

I moved with my other half to a ranch between Florence and Tucson. It was an idyllic life, at least for me, as my love of wild things and wild places was at it's peak. Life here was isolated and self reliance was the only way to survive. One hot summer morning upon awakening, we smelled smoke in the air. It drifted in on a soft morning breeze.

Summer here is hot and dry... moisture is sucked out of the earth and every living thing. Not until the summer rains arrive does the desert get any relief. Summer weather brings it's own dangers.

We climbed the hills behind our home to view the land around us and saw nothing. No plume of smoke from any direction. The whiff of smoke scent had drifted away as well. We felt secure.

Business called us to leave the ranch and drive to town, 35 miles away. The dusty two mile dirt driveway led us to a sleek paved highway which let to civilization. There was no traffic at all.

Fifteen miles into our trip we crested a hill and before we could react we were in a forest fire. The highway was clear but on each side trees exploded into flame. My partner being a stoic cowboy... continued on. I not being so stoic began to pray. Breaks between the flaming trees showed hills being devoured by fire. We sped through the inferno at speeds exceeding the limits goaded by the possibility of what could be. Finally we ascended the Catalina foothills to burst out of the inferno and to safety. Later we learned that the roads had been blocked to traffic and that we were the last truck to safely make it through. The fire, small by Arizona standards and having no name devoured 35,000 acres of desert grassland and almost two humans as well.

My life has been such that weather events were a large part of who I am. Weather governed by a hand both unseen and powerful. Weather gives us life and takes it, weather feeds us and starves us... weather stirs my soul. Yes, weather is in my blood. Is it in yours?