the weather is here

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The weather is here…

In the Hill country, and other parts of Texas you can count on the weather to change, sometimes, very quickly. There are an infinite number of terms describing the weather: colder than a well diggers ass (right now) on January 11, 2011, (the really cold stuff will get here later), raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock, hot enough to cook an egg on the sidewalk, (most days in the summer), so dry you can fold the clothes when they come out of the washer, and on and on.

I’ve seen hail the size of baseballs, snow that made snowmen before it hit the ground, wind that could blow a ship across the sea in a day. Texas Hill Country weather is tough. There is also the term Blue Northern: as defined by The Hand book of Texas online:

BLUE NORTHER

BLUE NORTHER. The term blue norther denotes a weather phenomenon common to large areas of the world's temperate zones—a rapidly moving autumnal cold front that causes temperatures to drop quickly and that often brings with it precipitation followed by a period of blue skies and cold weather. What is peculiar to Texas is the term itself. The derivation of blue norther is unclear; at least three folk attributions exist. The term refers, some say, to a norther that sweeps "out of the Panhandle under a blue-black sky"—that is, to a cold front named for the appearance of its leading edge. Another account states that the term refers to the appearance of the sky after the front has blown through, as the mid-nineteenth-century variant blew-tailed norther illustrates. Yet another derives the term from the fact that one supposedly turns blue from the cold brought by the front. Variants include blue whistler, used by J. Frank Dobie, and, in Oklahoma, blue darter and blue blizzard. Though the latter two phrases are found out-of-state, blue norther itself is a pure Texasism. The dramatic effects of the blue norther have been noted and exaggerated since Spanish times in Texas. But that the blue norther is unique to Texas is folklore.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Dictionary of American Regional English, Vol. 1 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1985).

And if none of this is clear to you,--- if you hear the term Blue Norther, get your ass inside, in front of a BIG fire, cause you will need it.

We have got the Hurricanes and tornados covered too, and don’t forget the droughts. Just this past September we had a Tropical storm Hermine, that brought almost a foot of rain to The BEE Ranch. Since then--- nada, now we are back in a drought. We never lack for variety with our Hill Country weather.