Winter is on the way, but it won’t be like old days
A COLUMN By Kathryn Ross, photo by Bob Confer
The Farmer’s Almanac is telling us to expect an early snowfall. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is telling us to expect a cold but dry winter. Thank the stars there are other ways to predict the weather and the best is just looking out the window.
People are always saying winter in Western New York isn’t like it used to be when we were kids, back when we had to walk snow covered streets to get to and from school. No warm bus ride for us villagers, we suffered the cold temperatures and icy winds and climbed through deep drifts to get to school. Sometimes the drifts were so deep that we would have to shovel out the driveway before Dad got home from work.
Snowplows piled the snow so high that we kids could make life-size snow castles we would play in for weeks.
I remember the Washington schoolyard covered with snow and all of us kids from first graders to sixth graders playing Duck, Duck Goose and chasing each other around a big, snowy circle at recess. On snowy mornings walking to school, we’d make snowballs and hide them near the big tree, so we would have ammunition ready for the snowball fight on the way home.
Nonie and I would eat lunch at each other’s houses. Heinz soup at her house or warm cream chipped beef on toast at my house before we would skid down the snow-covered road back to school, dodging Mike’s and Jimmy’s snowballs. The walk to school was downhill and the rooms in the school building were snug in many ways.
The almanac’s predictions are always interesting, predicting an even chance of snowy or dry weather, hedging their bets. NOAA tends to predict the worst, whatever it may be. I think they’re just trying to prepare people for the worst scenario. Local weather, men and women just have to get it right half the time to keep their jobs. And people across the state say, “Wait 5 minutes and the weather will change.” I think that is probably true almost everywhere.
Personally, I love it when I’m sitting cozy on the couch with a cat on my lap and a dog at my side watching the Buffalo News showing blizzard conditions across the city with six or five feet of snow, cars disappeared on snowy streets, roads and businesses closed and I’m looking out the window seeing sunshiny, clear blue skies and a dusting of white stuff on the still green grass here in Wellsville. I give thanks to the Genesee River Valley and the Appalachian Plateau.
When it comes to weather, I take my cue from the animals. How thick are the coats the horses and cows are wearing? How soon have the birds started chattering in the trees planning their trip south. When did the geese start their V-style formation training runs? But most of all, I keep my eye peeled this time of year for the Wooley Bear caterpillars. The length and harshness of the winter is predicted by the width of their orange stripe. The only problem with that is that every year I have to look up the legend, to know what to expect. This year I got lucky. It isn’t even the end of the summer yet and I happened across a graphic that shows the difference widths of the Wooley Bear’s stripes and what they foretell.
As cold or as warm as it sometime gets in Western New York, I can’t imagine living anywhere else. We’re just moving into one of the most beautiful times of the year. Red, orange, burnished and yellow leaves will soon be brightening the hillsides. Regardless of what the weather predictors say there will be falling snow to watch from the window and temperatures cool enough to bundle into heavy woolen sweaters and socks and sip hot cider or hot chocolate.
After a few months, the snow will melt away. The sun’s rays will grow warmer, and the color of spring will bloom. Then it will burst into summer with hundreds of shades of green painting the valleys, the fields and hillsides, cicadas will sing and the sunsets will be kaleidoscopic. Four glorious and distinctive seasons. Unheard of earthquakes, seldom a tornado or hurricane, what isn’t there to love about the weather in Western New York?
Now, I just have to keep my eye peeled to find that Wooley Bear caterpillar, so I know what to expect this winter.
