I woke up to thunder and sleet this morning. The wind was howling, the darkness lit by glitterings off ice covered branches. I am not sure why I love weather events so much, most people seem to not like them, but I love to watch the weather do wild things. I think I have only seen this particular show, the thunder sleet or thunder snow, once before in my life, when I was about 8.
We lived in the Allegheny mountains of Virginia when I was a kid. My dad was an outdoorsman, a hiker and rock climber, and the further out in the wilderness he could get, the happier he was. The morning of the thundersnow, dad was fiddling with his woodstove (something that he loved doing), rubbing his hands with delight and whispering ‘thundersnow’ at me. School was called off with deep snow everywhere and the cold was intense. I loved everything my dad loved, so of course I was going to love thunder snow.
At that time, my dad worked as a lineman for the power company. Whenever there was a line down in the mountains, he would hike out and find the downed line. That morning I went with him. We walked up on a high ridge, with the wind blowing, the thunder rolling and snow pouring down. We found the line and marked it, and were heading back down the right of way when the sun came out. The whole world was lit in a dazzling sparkle of glowing ice. We stopped to look out over the mountains, rolling away in a sparking haze of purple and silver. It was breathtaking.
I sat this morning listening to the thunder rumble and the whip-like sound of ice pellets hitting the roof and ground. There were even a few flashes of lightning that had my dog headed for the backdoor! The whole thing left me with that same sense of wonder I felt with my dad on the ridge years ago, a sense that the mysteries of nature, its power and breathtaking beauty, will never be truly understood by any of us. Instead it has to be felt.
No one was out that early on an icy morning. They are still calling for more ice, maybe snow, and just about everything that could be canceled is canceled. Including school. I don’t have a wood stove, more’s the pity, but I did think of waking my son up with some stories about thunder snow, maybe offering to take him for a walk on the hill out back. He is a teenager though, and mornings aren’t his thing, so I thought the better of it.
I love a storm like this one, when the weather is in an unpredictable mood. There’s a sense of exhilaration that comes from being caught up in the grip of nature in an event that is so powerful and often unpredictable. The best part of the whole thing though, at least for me, is that perfect, almost transcendent moment when the sun breaks through the storm, and the icy trees and rocks glow like a million fiery jewels.
***
Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns and articles appear periodically on BrownwoodNews.com