Light On Dark Water

…I just want to say I’ve enjoyed knowing all of you, and ask you to say a prayer for my soul.

You see, the temperature is expected to drop below freezing tonight or tomorrow night or maybe both. And the weather forecasters here seem to regard that as a life-threatening event.

I’ve lived almost my entire life in the state of Alabama, so I don’t have much experience of seriously cold weather. However, I grew up in the extreme northern end of the state, and am now living at the extreme southern end. If you look at Alabama on a map, you’ll observe that its north-south dimension is around 350 miles (560km). That’s enough to make a little difference in climate. Where I grew up, temperatures below freezing were common in winter, and every few years we got a significant snow (by “significant” I mean enough to cover the ground at least a few inches deep and hang around for a few days). Now and then it would get really quite cold, down around or below 0F (-17C).

Here, any dip below 32F/0C is big news. I was made aware of this when I came down here for a job interview in January or February of 1990. I turned on the radio in the car and heard a very excited weatherman giving dire warnings about the bitter cold that was about to descend on the area: Cover your plants! Wrap your pipes! Bring your pets inside! Stock up on food! Don’t go outside unless you absolutely have to! You could die!

I thought, “Wow, I didn’t know it got that cold here. I didn’t even bring my heavy coat.” And I waited to hear just how cold it was going to get. Finally the very excited weatherman said “We may see temperatures as low as…twenty-five degrees!” (That’s about -4C.)

I laughed.

Actually there’s a slight chance of snow, but it just started raining, so I don’t think that’s going to happen. Anyway, I think my chances of survival are pretty good, really.

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