I Long for Days of Driving Snow and Freezing Cold

I try to avoid writing about the weather because it usually changes when I do.

Here’s hoping it works this time.

Since bird season opened on Sept. 1 nearly every day has been clear, sunny, and warm. I remember it raining twice in the last two months. I didn’t hunt either day.

The weather has been so monotonous I can even recall the handful of windy days we’ve had.

I would have moved to Arizona if this was the climate I sought.

I long for days of driving snow and freezing cold.

But it’s hard to complain when each day dawns as beautifully as the day before. It’s been so mild this fall a light jacket isn’t even required.

Unfortunately, all this pleasantness coincides with drought. Every week is drier than the last. Most of the stock ponds in this part of the state are bone dry, and what little grass grew last summer has long since withered.

Of course there are dire predictions about how fierce the coming winter will be, but there always are. I recall the same predictions last fall prior to an extremely mild winter.

Predicting lots of snow and cold in Montana is hardly a stretch. It used to be a good bet although not so much anymore. I always expect snowy and cold winters. The bad ones just start early and last too long.

It’s been a decade since we had one of those.

While the rest of the country deals with hurricanes, flooding, and early-season snow, we’re once again clear, sunny and 72.

Just like yesterday.

And the day before that.

The weekend forecast calls for colder temps, rain, and even a possibility of snow. I’ll believe it when I see it.

The most-recent forecast of a season-ending weather event occurred only a few weeks ago. It rained for half a day, dropped little more than a quarter of an inch, and by the next afternoon it was once again, clear, sunny, and 72.

If this keeps up climate-change deniers will start moving here for our weather instead of our politics.

A storm hit Montana on Nov. 9, 2011, bringing snow and cold that didn’t let up until the following April. While merely mentioning that winter could jinx this one I’m willing to take that chance. I’m sick and tired of clear, sunny and 72.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]