The USA Today row of weather icons for the week shows a few clouds, some sun, but no hint of snow. It feels like winter is safely behind us.
And looking back on the surprising winter of 09-10, I have learned the following: Rain is the new snow.
Here in New England we spent most of the winter worrying about snow storms that never turned into anything significant. The forecasters had a really bad season, just when I thought they had this whole gig down pat. It was as if all the Doppler Radars conspired to rise up against the media outlets in some sort of technological rebellion. Schools canceled classes on the mere prospect of snow multiple times only to have kids laughing by noon as they ran through the sprinklers (okay not quite).
The rain on the other hand was truly frightening. The month of March was so wet that I almost bought my first umbrella. I found myself sending Molly and Emma downstairs to the basement every other day to see if there was any water damage (I’m still recovering from my torn achilles, and hey, the basement can be kind of scary even when it’s not raining). Eventually I took the advice of my friend Neil who told me his secret for making sure there was no flooding in the basement: don’t check.
So as we move into the much happier spring of 2010 I am glad that we don’t need to deal with any more snow false alarms. And that I still don’t own an umbrella.
Did you ever get any water in your basement?