February 17, 2014 (Monday)
This has been a cold winter, even though in Rockport we have not yet had a freeze. Lots of people have had “cabin fever,” staying warm inside and watching or reading news of global warming.
The weather folks have treated us to new wording for cold winters. They have named the phenomenon polar vortex or arctic vortex. Of course there’s nothing new about it except the description. We have had cold winters in the past, but we didn’t know what to call them, I guess. Oh, I remember now: “arctic front.”
Now the weather bureau has begun naming winter storms, just like we name hurricanes and tropical storms. We’ll have to give up describing to our kids, in our most creaky voice, “the winter of ought nine,” when we had to walk ten miles in the snow and ice to get to school. But we’ll be able to say, “when ‘Louise’ was here, she was really cold.”
This week in February was special to me when I was a pastor, because the weather was almost always very nice, the Winter Texans were still here in abundant numbers, the local people were glad to see the sunshine, so it made for an excellent opportunity to have a special emphasis week (Revival Meeting).
Anyway, hopefully the worst part of winter is behind us now. But we’ll soon know for sure one way or another, won’t we?