Would You Call This Dogwood Winter

In “Would You Call This Dogwood Winter”, I relate to just how the local people ‘size-up’ the newcomers to our area as they try to blend and fit in as quickly as possible but are u

“Is it Redbud or Dogwood Winter?” “I thought we had that one last week, or was it the week before, I keep getting the cold spells all mixed up.” “We didn’t have weather like this in Mississippi.”

Are all the 'signs' right...

Brrrrrrr! They are calling for the temperature to drop tonight to just above freezing. It has been 70° and 80° weather for the last two weeks and now they're calling for a big drop in temperatures for the next week or so. While we have been enjoying higher than normal temperatures for a couple of weeks we will be experiencing just the opposite now. W0W! A 50° drop in temperature; not unheard of in the mountains of East Tennessee, but certainly not a normal or everyday occurrence either. During the early spring each year in the southern Appalachian Mountains we can count on at least three distinct cold spells, locally known as Redbud Winter, Dogwood Winter and Blackberry Winter. I have thought about this writing for the last couple of weeks now in anticipation of our most honored annual Easter cold spell, better known as Dogwood Winter. Some two weeks ago someone had already written about a Dogwood Winter on the internet I had noticed. The only problem with that was, the ‘signs’ are right now and they weren’t two weeks ago.

Does your local weather fluctuate in the Spring?

Roller coaster weather...

Thank goodness you can count on nature! Politics, sports and a few other things might change overnight, or day by day even, but the weather and the scriptures are honest and true, always. The weather and nature may deviate a little occasionally, but you can always count on the sun coming up in the morning and the stars come out at night even though we sometimes find ourselves on the wrong side of a cloudy day. During this time of year temperatures do fluctuate more noticeably. It seems to drive the weatherman up the wall. It might even be harder to "guess-ti-mate" the daily forecasts accurately at the different times throughout the year.

Dogwood bloom

from my back yard

It does the body good to laugh...

To be most accurate and inerrant, a good prognosticator has to be observant not only of all that is happening now with the weather, but equally ass to what has just happened. In this area of the country we can’t have Dogwood Winter until after Redbud Winter. And you can't have Dogwood Winter unless the Dogwood trees are in bloom. Duh! You don't have to be a rocket scientist to observe what's happening outside. Yet each year we witness 'transplants' or some so called 'flat-land foreigners', that don't know a thing about our customs, or the ways we do things around here much less the weather; trying to predict and ascertain just which cold spell we are in at any particular moment. It's really quite hilarious and we locals just look at one another and grin to keep from outright laughter each time we notice it. We've actually come to watch for it in the ‘new folk’s’ conversation. It is particularly noticeable when our local radio and TV stations acquire new help maybe for the upcoming season. They've just heard enough about the local folklore and our mores that they decide to test themselves by sharing their vast amount of knowledge acquired during the evening weather forecast. We are just waiting for one of them to mess up by calling Redbud Winter, Dogwood Winter or Blackberry Winter by mistake. Sometimes we get such a chuckle we may even ‘ring-up’ a neighbor on the phone and say, "did you hear that new weatherman on TV just now, Charlie…”