Driving back from Charlottesville yesterday I heard all the talk of snow; 3–4 inches, 2–8 inches in the Highlands…..
I preferred to think that the weathermen, weather-people, were erring on the promotional side of their editorial licensure. The air was 47 and the ground was too warm for the snow to stick. By dark at home they seemed to be correct; it was snowing good and sticking to the trees and car. Air temp was 32. Every time I went out for wood for the fireplace it was snowing harder and the ground was covered. It was still snowing at 8 the next morning and even though it was melting beneath, it had snowed hard enough to accumulate 3—4 inches. If the ground had been cold I think it would have measured closer to 6 or 8”.
I just don’t remember an October snow that covered the ground.
I found a site that has snow records for Hot Springs back to 1948. It shows the date of the first snow of an inch or more. The only October snow I found since 1948 was October 10th, 1979. I ask that this evidence be recorded by the court reporter because I was accused of being a confused old man who thinks he knows everything about the weather and (rather than stop here with the inference that I could occasionally be incorrect) that I am always wrong.
Despite my ongoing battle for legal competency in my own home, the snow this morning was beautiful and every early morning animal left a clear record of their stroll for me to follow; from walnut to drink in the river, from willow sapling to…to a home under my bridge, there’s a muskrat living under my bridge….
