Editor’s Notes: Hoodie weather starts the dash toward winter
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According to the latest fall foliage maps, the trees in my lawn and nearby woods should be in moderate color by now, will be in peak color on about Nov. 2, and will be past their peak and drifting toward the ground on about Nov. 9.
A glance out the window tells me my trees pay about as much attention to what they are supposed to be doing as I do.
One of them has dropped its leaves completely. A couple are still hanging on bright green. And the ones in their in-between stage look as though they're going to go straight from a grayish green to falling.
(I also have a geranium that I would normally have removed from the porch by now, but which has decided instead to throw out some more blooms and keep the party going.)
I did finally switch on the heat the other day, though. Frost is enough for me. Plus, the dog was asking for his hoodie.
And that had me looking at forecasts for the winter. Fall's cooler, crisper weather is my favorite time of year. Winter ... has its moments ... but I generally prefer weather that does not require me to wear quite so many layers.
Not only is my yard defying attempts to predict its behavior, but an El Nino-driven winter seems also to be giving forecasters fits.
Temperatures could be mild, but maybe not; and there will be some extremes. Snowfall is impossible to predict, but there could be less than average in some regions, unless there isn't, because really, you can't predict snowfall this far out. And, there might be a monster storm or two, and then that would change the whole narrative.
Conditions are likely to be worse in the mountains. Unless they aren't. And for communities along the Ohio River, there are "equal chances" that precipitation will be either above or below average this winter.
I'm not kidding.
As one writer who was also attempting to summarize the situation put it, in West Virginia there is a "clear lean toward a mild winter [temperature-wise], but not a guarantee."
It seems as though the safe course is what it always is around here: Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Know that at some point in January or February there will be a stretch or two when it's harder to get to work or school. And know that just about the time we start complaining about the cold and snow, March will roll around and start the turbulent transition to spring. (After that we can gear up for complaining about how hot and humid it is.)
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You know they say if you don't have anything else to talk about, talk about the weather. Well, my problem this week was that if I had started in on a lot of the other things I wanted to talk about, I would have gone on for pages. I will say this, though: Rain or shine, cold or hot, sometime in the next few days or on Nov. 3, for goodness sake, people, VOTE!
Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com.