Topical But Not Tropical Texas Weather

In this picture, you can see that the snow stayed on the lawns and roofs but the walkways, driveways and roads were just wet. (This was taken in our neighborhood a couple of years ago.)

For the past few weeks, the temperature has been cold here in East Texas, a place where you usually do not see too many coats; a place where some people do not even own a coat. This is an area where in summer, the temperature stays above 100 degrees F. for several days.

So, our meteorologists are in their glory. Yup - we are a training ground for weathermen! You can come here when you graduate and you will experience just about every kind of weather. We watch for the "fire" in their eyes as they tell you about the newest record that could be broken!

Two days before Christmas - on the 23rd at about 10:00 p.m. a tornado came through our subdivision, after first taking out the V.F.W. building to the north of us. Now, we see blue plastic on roofs awaiting repair throughout our area. Many trees are down and some still awaiting removal. (Some of the same homes hit by Hurricane Ike have been damaged again.)

Back in Toronto, we used to covet the south and for many of us, a special treat was a trip south for at least a brief respite. But we did not have hurricanes and tornadoes. What we had was deep snow that had to be shovelled and residual ice on walkways, sidewalks and roads that made it easy for people to fall or cars to spin out of control.

When I was a kid in Toronto, we put snow tires on our cars every winter. They had a different kind of tread. Before snow tires, we put chains on our tires. Eventually, chains were outlawed in Ontario because they caused damage to the road surface. Now tires are manufactured to be used in all conditions and people just use one set of tires all year round.

The problem here in East Texas is that the climate is generally tropical and people are not experienced in handling vehicles on icy roads.

So, we have cold temperatures and possible icy conditions forecast for the next few days. What happens . . . well, smart people stay home because it is going to be dangerous driving!

Almost every year, we have run the air-conditioning the week before Christmas, but not so this year and the cold has been with us for several weeks now. Many people have colds and sinus infections and those of us who own them have been wearing coats most days.

So, you folks up north, do feel for us and say a prayer because our homes are not built for cold weather and our utilities will have trouble keeping up. The doors and windows do not always fit snugly and windows are not triple-glazed.

Are you expecting a comment about global warming about now? Well, how can one resist?

That gentleman - and I will certainly give him that (always seems very polite) - the one who may have invented the Internet? - well, I was just kind of wondering what his heating bill was going to be this winter for that house just out of Nashville? I sure hope it isn't an inconvenient truth that I mention this, but it seems appropriate.