If you were in the Chicago area on Saturday, you probably noticed the drastic weather changes. All day, the weather swung back and forth between sun and snow. At times, the snow came down quite heavily, and there were also a few occasions where it was balled up like hail. On Sunday, however, temperatures climbed into the 70s. The weather reminded me of what I call Chaos Season, a magical weather storm that mixes up the seasons in the world of my Season Avatars series. Chaos Season doesn't only affect the weather, but also plants and animals. Flowers will blossom at the wrong time of the year, and birds will start to migrate. If the Season Avatars weren't able to straighten out the seasons, Challen would soon become an inhospitable place.
As the weather proved this weekend, drastic weather changes happen in the real world too. Here's a link to an article detailing some extreme weather changes. In 1943, a town in South Dakota experienced a nearly 50-degree temperature change in two minutes. In 1972, in Loma, Montana, the temperature rose 103ºF (from -54ºF to 49ºF) in 24 hours. Oklahoma City experienced a record high and record low on the same day in 1911. You can find more weather records on Wikipedia and CNN.
The strange weather on Saturday was good for one thing: it encouraged me to stay home and finish the rough draft of Fifth Season, Book Four in the Season Avatars series. Now it's on to drafting Book Five, Summon the Seasons. I also have to incorporate comments from beta readers and check formatting/layout for Chaos Season.
What's the most extreme weather you've experienced? Feel free to share it in the comments.
Over by Detroit we got about 2 inches of snow yesterday afternoon/evening and now of course most of it is gone. It's pretty annoying when it goes back and forth like that.
ReplyDeleteA hundred degree swing is huge.
ReplyDeleteWe're inconsistent here, especially in the winter. It can be forties one day and upper seventies the next. In fact, it's supposed to be upper seventies today and then freeze tomorrow night. Weird.
Glad you got the rough draft done!
Sometimes it seems like winter will never go away, Pat.
ReplyDeleteAlex, I guess you have to enjoy the warm weather while it lasts!
I'm sorry you got snow so late in the season.
ReplyDeleteThe most extreme weather I ever faced was actually in Chicago. It was the mid 1970s. Greg and I were walking down Michigan avenue and the temps dropped. Worse, the winds off the lake were so cold you couldn't catch your breath. It was bitterly, bitterly cold.
Even young and robust as we were, we couldn't walk any further and we ducked into the back of a hair salon. Their dryer vents were going and we warmed up there until the feeling returned to our faces. We smelled like hair spray afterwards. :)