We have a saying in the Texas Panhandle: If you don’t like the weather, wait 20 minutes; it’ll change.
I hear now that the forecast for Thursday is supposed to be in the teens with biting northerly wind. It will return to a “balmy” 50 degrees or so with winds shifting in the other direction.
The weather today was actually quite pleasant. The temp hit 50-something with light winds.
I’ve learned over 19 years of living here to expect the unexpected. Nothing surprises me. Cold today, warm tomorrow, cold the day after that.
Actually, I got my baptism to ever-changing Texas weather along the Gulf Coast, where the temperature doesn’t change much — especially during the summer — but where rain arrives suddenly, and in torrents to boot!
Many times during our stay in Beaumont from 1984 until 1995 we would watch storm clouds boil up out of nowhere during the heat of the summer, drop about 6 inches of rain in about an hour, maybe two, then the sky would clear, the sun would return, steam would rise from the ground, the mosquitos would descend on human victims by the millions and the temperature would climb back to its customary 90-plus degrees.
Then the cycle would repeat itself the next day. And the day after that.
Here, the temps change dramatically, particularly during the winter.
It does get cold in Amarillo. As in biting, face-numbing cold. Our older son moved here after graduating from Sam Houston State University in December 1995. We went to his commencement, loaded up a rented truck with his gear and drove from Huntsville to Amarillo. It was 80 degrees when we left Huntsville; it was about 10 degrees when we arrived in Amarillo.
I recall him telling me a day or two after arriving here that he couldn’t “feel my face.”
Poor guy.
It changes rapidly. We’ve all learned that reality and have become as accustomed the rapid change here as we got used to the incessant heat and humidity on the Gulf Coast.
Besides, what in the world can we do about it? Not a single thing.
We’ve learned to just roll with it — and wait 20 minutes.