Weather or Not

By Gordon Hopkins Ah, springtime in Nebraska. It is possibly my favorite 20 minutes of the year.As we all know, Nebraska has four seasons: Summer, Fall, Winter and “That was it?” People try to say quality is more important than quantity. Imagine starting the day with the finest, most perfectly brewed cup of coffee. Now imagine only being allowed one teaspoon of that coffee. Still think quality over quantity?Nebraska weather is notoriously capricious. Where else can you see a man wearing board short and flip flops standing next to a man in a parka and a wool hat, and yet, somehow, both are dressed appropriately for the weather.An irrelevant aside: how hard up for material does a columnist have to be when he resorts to writing about the weather?The weather has been pretty hard on us recently. There is obviously the horribly hot and dry and windy conditions that led to “one of the largest wildfires in years,” a phrase I have been forced to type a depressing number of times in the last two weeks.People prayed for rain, of course. Well, eventually, we got rain. Unfortunately, what we got were thunderstorms, accompanied by winds so hard that they tore the roof off of a barn and sucked out all the chickens. I heard this tale and cannot get the image out of my head of chickens flying through the air, shrieking/clucking, “Auntie Em! Auntie Em!”Miraculously, all the chickens were recovered unharmed. No one is quite sure where they have been. Puzzlingly, they were all found wearing tiny little ruby slippers.There has been some debate among the population as to whether there was an actual tornado or not during the storm. The National Weather Service says no. Folks with cell phone cameras say otherwise. I choose to stay out of the deliberations.Of course, we didn't get nearly enough rain and now the temperatures are going up again and the sun is out and, while we are starting to see a little more green, that does not mean we aren't still at risk for more fires.The statewide burn ban has expired, but that doesn't mean we are out of the very dry and combustible woods yet. Ken Krause, Fairbury Rural Fire Chief, recently noted, “The Governor's executive order has been rescinded due to rainfall across the state. We have received some rain, but most areas haven't received enough to make a big difference. We are continuing to monitor the fuels in our area and will make a decision later this week on whether we will allow burning in our district or not.”Eventually, burns will be allowed again, but if the past few weeks have taught us anything (and I sure as heck hope they have), it is to use a little common sense when striking that match. For heaven's sake, give our poor firefighters a break.I did a search of hopefully witty quotes about weather to “garnish” my column as I sometimes do. I came across this bit of “wisdom” from John Ruskin, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”I don't know who John Ruskin is, but I do know he clearly has never been to Nebraska.

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