To my fickle Facebook friends

Last Tuesday, two days after widespread frost advisories were issued across the region, I noticed this post on my Facebook page from Alma Duplessis: “Send me snow or at least a cold front (please).”

That was fast. Just over a week ago, everybody was asking why it was so cold and where our spring was.

Perhaps it’s because I grew up on a farm, but I love and appreciate the importance of all kinds of weather. Grandma always said that too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing. Not long after I started with Environment Canada in Ottawa, I realized not everyone agreed with Grandma.

It was a long time ago – if you can even imagine a time before emails and texts. I was the duty briefer at the MacDonald Cartier International Airport, handling aviation and media requests. It was late July and we had been through a prolonged dry spell. Just a short drive outside the city, you could see that the crops were stressed and the ground was cracking.

I was wrapping up a weather conversation with a news anchor at a local radio station when he asked what the weekend weather looked like. I told him, with as much glee as I could muster, that a large area of rain was moving in and would stall over the Ottawa Valley until the end of the day Sunday.

Silence – crickets. Then he abruptly ended our conversation.

Minutes later, the phone rang. The news anchor wanted to speak with my supervisor.

I was called into the office and told that I shouldn’t be so happy about a rainy weekend in the summer, and I quote, “People want to go to the beach.”

I looked him square in the eye and said, “Grandma says, if it doesn’t rain, we don’t eat.”

All that to say that yes, we do need sunshine and heat, but we can’t do without rain. Earlier in the week, forest fires were burning in many parts of our region.

Let’s learn to accept the weather, deal with it appropriately and yes, even appreciate whatever it might bring. We are Atlantic Canadians, after all; we know that it will change soon enough.

Here’s what I suggest: the next time it rains, put on your fanciest rain boots and splash around in puddles. It can’t be done without smiling!

WSI Sometimes, yes, even in the summer, a good soaking is just what we need. That’s what we’re going to get across much of Atlantic Canada. These are my forecast rainfall totals into the middle of next week.