TheBanyanTree: Normalcy

[B Drummond]

We have had what I would call a normal June this year.  

When I say normal I mean that the weather pattern is as I remember June 
weather being for the vast majority of years that I have lived in this 
part of the world.

As I was growing up June and July were months of nearly daily 
thundershowers in the afternoon and early evenings.  That now is our 
pattern.  There is something soothing about it to me, something that 
reminds me that nature, often unpredictable, can have a familiar, 
predictable side as well.

No, I don't mean that I expect winter to be cold, summer to be hot, 
spring and summer to be in between.  Those are givens in our part of 
the world.   But, yes, I do mean that I expect there to be showers most 
every day in June and July, brief showers for the most part, followed 
by, many times, full, oppressive sunshine, heat and accompanying, 
stifling humidity within minutes after the thunderstorm and for the 
remainder of the day.

ICK! you might say. Doesn't sound like a weather pattern I would like to 
experience.   

Ah . . . but normal . . . familiar . . . and blessedly so, I would 
say.

'Cause to see that not happen for year after year, after it being such a 
sure thing in June for the majority of the years in my life was 
oftentimes disconcerting to me. What was happening to my part of the 
world?  Almost daily, brief thunderstorms in June and July used to be 
as certain as tomorrow's sunrise. Are we going to have a new normal for 
summertime weather?  What will it do to our flora and fauna? How will 
they deal with it?  It was as if my world were turning on me, leaving 
me to its will and whim.

If I remember correctly, we had the driest May ever recorded in this 
area's history, a history of over 150 years of record keeping.

Nice, if only for one season I say, to return to normalcy.  I have 
missed it so.


   bd
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