On Stormy Summers…
The weather today is gorgeous.
It’s 51 degrees, very darkly overcast, winds gusting up to 33 miles per hour and rain forecast throughout the day. I love stormy weather, and I always have. The electricity in the air during a potential lightning storm is exhilarating. I love it. I become very excited when a storm is brewing, and I walk around with a big goofy grin on my face.
I realize most people’s ideal weather is a dry 89 degrees without a cloud in the sky. I grew up in an agrarian part of California where the beginning of summer was in April, and by June the temperatures had already hit the 100 degree mark several times. Winter didn’t come until December or January. There were really only two seasons: hot and marginally cold. An overnight freeze was disastrous for the crops, and just the mention of one would throw the whole community into a state of alert and panic. Snow was basically unheard of. I hated the weather there. I vowed to myself, while panting and slogging through the six months of summer heat, that I would move north as soon as I could.
I spent quite a few summer vacations in the north – visiting my grandparents in British Columbia or visiting friends in Minnesota. I also spent some summers down south, visiting my great grandmother in Florida. The northern summers were cool and stormy. The southern summers were humid and tropically stormy. I knew which type of stormy summer I preferred. Now that I live in a place where stormy summers are the norm, I feel exceedingly grateful and I actually find myself looking forward to summer.
I once did an experiment for my high school chemistry class that entailed collecting data from a large group of students regarding their mood levels in relation to the weather. I gathered data for several months, and when I compiled it, the results were clear: People felt worse – sad, hopeless, irritable, despairing – on days when it was raining.
I had never thought about it in terms of actual emotion. I always knew that people complained about rainy days or very hot days, but I didn’t realize that their moods actually shifted with the weather. I’d heard of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), wherein people become depressed during a certain season every year. But, I did not realize that the mood patterns could be tracked daily.
This morning, I’ve heard people say that the weather is “yucky”, “gross”, “crummy”, “ridiculous” and “annoying”. They’re clustered around computer monitors and televisions, wringing their hands and speaking in hushed tones; checking the radar in the hopes that there will be some news about when the storm will pass.
Meanwhile, I’m looking at them and wondering – why?
What is it about the weather that affects us to the point of becoming anxious or sad or upset for an entire day, week, or season?
Perhaps it is the reminder that we have no control.
The weather is the ultimate proof of just how small and impotent we are as humans on this wild and tenacious planet.
This planet that will persist and foster life long after we humans are gone, that existed long before humans came about.
We are nothing against the forces of the Earth.
And so, I have decided that I will respect the weather, whether it is pleasurable to me or not.
Because, really, I’m lucky I’ve not been flung off the face of Earth long before now.