Whether the weather is cloudy

Here in Mississippi, we take our weather seriously..... seriously.

We have to, for one thing its hot. 90 degree days are as common here as sub-zero days were back in the mountains of Montana. Maybe more so in fact. Also, there is this stuff in the air here called 'humidity'. It is hard to describe accurately, but there are times when I really feel I know what the lobster is feeling when it hits the boiling water.

The heat and humidity messes with the brain too. I notice it in my self and have always noticed it in others. The stereotypical Mississippi redneck is dumber then a fence post and their slow southern drawl reflects the image. Put the same guy in air conditioning for 8 hours and you realize he is a nuclear physicist from the power plant down the road.

Occasionally we have snow. Here, snow is a big event. It has snowed 3 times in my tenure in MS, (though it did snow a couple of other times while I was not at home, but off visiting far away places) each event was foreshadowed as the worst event to hit here since..... of course the last event. I have yet to see Ice on the road. It just never gets cold enough, long enough. But schools are canceled, businesses close, in anticipation of the big event.

It is the anticipation that is always the worst.

We also have hurricanes, and tornadoes. Once again however it is the anticipation of the tornado that is the nightmare.

Last week, 5 tornadoes ripped through our small town. They caused a lot of damage, but people had been anticipating them for a week. Some people were caught off guard, the tornadoes came down on us very quickly, but after anticipating them for a week, nobody got killed.

Today we have another bout with the storms. Once again anticipation is high. It is supposed to be even worse then last week.... though it hasn't even rained yet. Just to prove a point, our city decided yesterday at 9:30 a.m. to test its sirens. Businesses went into tornado procedures, school children were sent into the halls, shoppers and drivers were sent scurrying to safety.... all in anticipation of the big event. The storms never came yesterday, though everyone will be keeping a watchful eye today, and if the sirens go off.... we will react the same way once again....