I don’t fear umbrellas, but wind has got me worried

Have you ever experienced the feeling that things are just too good to be true, that somewhere a giant Monty Python foot is going to stomp down and wreck your day?

That’s the situation I found myself in during a recent morning as I enjoyed my morning coffee while I watched the Weather Network to get caught up on which coast was hammered the worst or which midwestern state was flattened along a tornado path, or where a new car dipped slowly into a giant sinkhole.

Just this past week, there was more rain and snow on the west coast, blizzards in Manitoba, freezing rain in Montreal and the east coast battered once again. In the weather lottery, we seem to keep winning this year.

I know there are probably some of you who are saying, “Go ahead, brag about it and you just watch what happens next.” I’m not bragging, believe me; I’m very worried about when that shoe might drop.

And if I’m worried, people who suffer from weather phobias must be worried sick. And just so they can’t relax and let their guard down, the Weather Network has a regular Force of Nature feature that shows you the top five weather videos across North America.

If you suffer from ancraophobia, a fear of wind, the video from Kansas this week showing flat cement pads along piles of lumber, which were part of a subdivision just the day before, might send you looking for cover.

If a fear of snow, or chinophobia, bothers you, then shots of east coasters tunnelling their way along sidewalks would do nothing to help make your day.

Irrational fears of certain weather conditions are no funny matter. Researchers from Ball State University and the University of Kansas published a paper in the American Meteorological Society Journal stating approximately one in 10 Americans suffer from some degree of weather fear.

Weather is serious business for Canadians even if you don’t suffer from a weather-related phobia. According to a report in 2014 by Influence Communications, which analyzes all major news stories in a year in 160 countries, weather reporting took up 229 per cent more time in Canadian media than in any other place in the planet.

Meanwhile, the Weather Network has launched a new tool to help keep us glued to our desktop and mobile web devices even longer. Called the Severe Weather Outlook tool, it is designed to help users prepare for significant or severe weather that may result in weather warnings or alerts being issued.

The most important thing from my point of view is that we are rapidly approaching the end of conditions that create frigophobia, or a fear of cold. Hopefully, that will soon be just a memory of the winter past. The Weather Network’s long-range forecast calls for a warm summer from the Great Lakes to Atlantic Canada.

Keep your fingers crossed!