There is nothing wrong with a little wet winter weather
The weathermen are driving me crazy this week.
I guess to be politically correct, I should say
”
weather people,
”
but I’m not sure there actually is a female weather person
around here, so I’ll stick with
”
weathermen.
”
It seems like every time I turn on the radio on, or the TV news,
there’s nothing but gloom and doom.
There is nothing wrong with a little wet winter weather
The weathermen are driving me crazy this week.
I guess to be politically correct, I should say “weather people,” but I’m not sure there actually is a female weather person around here, so I’ll stick with “weathermen.”
It seems like every time I turn on the radio on, or the TV news, there’s nothing but gloom and doom.
“Get out of California! There’s too much rain here!” appears to be the collective message. When in reality, it’s anything but.
I think at best, it looks like an average rain year. It started off promisingly, but then we had some dry spells in November and December and some decidedly warmish weather, and ultimately the ground dried out pretty well. I know I was doing some watering in my yard just before Christmas. Pretty weird.
So we need the rain. So rain is a good thing. Yet the weathermen don’t see it that way.
“Another terrible day coming up,” said the one on KGO Radio the other day.
Since when did rain get to be terrible in California?
At this point, it doesn’t even look like a proper El Niño year, despite the fact that the National Weather Service predicted one.
I’ve lived through a few El Niño years before, and believe me, this is no El Niño year.
I also should say that I am not a big fan of rain myself. Some people love the rain and glory in it. Myself, I would be just as happy living in the desert. I’m a sunshine girl at heart.
Rain is not fun. It’s wet and cold, makes driving nerve-wracking at times, and creates mud. All these are not advantages in my book.
But I am also a realist, and I know all too well that California needs the rain. We don’t have enough water here, and when it comes, we’d better get it while we can.
Back to my pet peeve. This week, what we’ve had is a series of storms passing through. Well and good. It’s winter, after all.
And this series of storms has actually been quite tolerable, thanks to frequent breaks in the rain. It is not like days and days of continuous downpour, which is actually not such a good thing, because that’s when the streets start to flood and trees fall over.
Take today, which is Tuesday. It did rain quite a bit this morning, but now the sun is out. It was about perfect. We probably got an inch or so and now it’s all settling down.
Tomorrow there will be another storm, and granted, the biggest one of the week. But there’s no reason to fear it. It will be here, be gone, and then on to the next one.
I would be the first one to tell you that too much rain is inconvenient and even dangerous. But why make everyone afraid of it before it gets here?
Rain shouldn’t be feared and the weather people shouldn’t make us afraid of it. They should be saying, “Hey! Here comes the rain! A series of big storms with some wind, but we need the precipitation! It’s all good!”
The people in Mississippi and Washington state would laugh their derrieres off if they heard us talking about this being a lot of rain.
So weathermen, or weather people, or whatever you are, respectfully: Be happier about the wet weather, or just shut up. You’re raining on my parade.
