My Prairie Blog: Our Favourite Prairie Passtime

In a little over 24 hours, we went from this:

To this:

In case you missed that, it's from this:

To this:

Is it any wonder that our favourite prairie passtime is ... Talking About the Weather!

There's a saying around these parts, "If you don't like the weather, wait a minute. It'll change." I'm convinced that's why prairie folks are obsessed with the weather, and why no real conversation can continue long without sharing your own daily personal assessment, which usually includes a concise prediction for the immediate future.

Those of us who live in this particular climate are so influenced by the changes in our weather and how extreme and immediate those changes can be, that it has become a cultural habit to deal with it by continually sharing out views about it. If an uncomfortable pause threatens to occur in a prairie conversation, it is immediately averted by tossing in 'Have you heard the forecast for tonight? or 'What's happening with that Colorado low?' Works every time!

Here in the Prairies 'what you see is what you get'. And what we see in the sky is what we will be getting very soon and requires constant attention. Every day, all day, the sky is a never ending palate of eternal change, from horizon to horizon, and what comes out of the sky is always of interest to the residents of prairie lands. There's little doubt that we actually thrive on our temperature extremes and love to brag about our ability to adapt .... ergo another joke... "How often do we switch from heat to air conditioning then back to heat... in the same day!!" And yes.. for those who are not from the Prairies ... this happens a whole lot more often than you'd think!
The last few days here have been wonderful examples of prairie weather. I thought I'd share them with you...

This was shot on Sunday, March 7: (cold, crisp morning, fingers feeling icy on camera)