Weather Patterns

It happens so quickly, the change in the weather. I guess I should say it happens gradually but suddenly. I like autumn before it gets really cold, before all the leaves fall.

I live in the East now, and although it has four seasons, and is north enough to have snow, the way its seasons manifest seems slightly different than does the weather out West, or more specifically in Colorado.

It seems to me, that seasons begin later in Colorado than they do here. I can count on the change being pretty close to the designated date, i.e., September 21st does seem pretty close to the time when the average temperature drops and the leaves begin to color just slightly. In Colorado, it seemed to me, we had Indian summer more often than not. Then again, those ugly damp snowstorms brew and wreak havoc, like the one that just passed through Colorado, that began with rain and ended with a miserable whiteout, dangerous because the snow, instead of sinking onto the ground, clung to the leaves, the accumulative weight of which broke the branches and no telling where they might fall. A storm like that occurred in 1997, just before I moved to New York.

The weather isn't bad out here. The summers are humid - air conditioners solve that problem - and it frequently rains. New Jersey rivers are prone to flooding . Phenomena unique to this area are "Noreasters" and ice storms, although ice storms are more common a little further north, in New York and New England. Noreasters can be brutal, apparently a result of the collision of temperatures from the Gulf Stream and cold air from the Arctic. It means a lot of rain, wind and snow. Ick.

Ice storms can also be nasty. Until I moved here, I thought they were a thing of myth. Not so. I've experienced them by now, rain that freezes on or near the ground, on electrical telephone wire, rooftops, and roads. The ones I have experienced have been mild and short lived, thank goodness.

I get my seasons out here, so that's fine. What I miss is the sunshine, the plentiful sunshine of Colorado, and the thunderstorms that roll in off the plains, that you can see from miles away, with those gorgeous cumulus clouds that billow upward, tall as skyscrapers. Beautiful.