¡Salud y Saludos!

Are we in spring yet? That’s right...Frosty the Snowman seemed to head to Siberia this year and left North Carolinians with little if any real cold and wintry weather to speak of. It’s quite a marked contrast from previous years for me here. The first month I spent in North Carolina, back in January 2000, the Triangle area got socked with the most amount of snow in a 24-hour period, ever--20.5 inches! A couple of winters later, it got enough snow to put it on the record books again with one of the top ten greatest snow falls. And snow has just been one of the symptoms of the winter in past years. At other times, ice has been the culprit to the winter weather woes. Ice has proven to be a much bigger deal for residents than snow, in fact. As those of us who’ve been around for a few years can attest, the ice has made not only for impossible drives home...but has also been responsible for some deaths and countless cases of hospitalizations due to carbon monoxide poisonings as a result of inappropriate use of heating devices during power outages. Luckily, this year has brought none of the death and mayhem. We’ve been spared from the dark side of what might otherwise be considered the white season.

Having said that--at least for this Miami native--this winter just hasn’t been a true winter. I can’t help but feel like I was cheated out of one of the experiences I deliberately seek during this time of the year. Not to mention, one of the factors that has seriously contributed to me developing such a taste for this lovely state: 4 seasons. In my case, I could almost do with just one season all year long--winter...especially if it’s cold and cloudy the whole time. But then again, I’m a freak when it comes to my taste in weather. Either way, it seems like we just had 3 seasons during the past year; two-and-a-half if you take into account the semi-autumn we had, because let’s face it...this was not an autumn for the record books. It was hot so late into the fall season that the leaves still thought it was summer. Then everything changed quite suddenly when a cold blast finally moved on through.

I make a point of stressing this recent weather pattern and how much it disturbs me because in many cases, Latinos who are recent arrivals to the state have never experienced the kind of climate that is more typical of this time of year. That is, they may never have experienced sub-freezing temperatures. In my case, I spent the first 15 years of my life without ever having seen a flake of snow; only once in that entire time did I experience near-freezing temperatures. A couple of winters ago, temperatures in Miami, where I was born and raised, got cold enough that some ice formed on car windows (the sort of thing that is an almost daily occurrence for weeks in this state). It made the front page of the Miami Herald! That happened only once during the entire time I lived there. In some cases, the novelty is something to be appreciated. I know that many people—who’ve never lived in a place with winter temperatures that can make for frosty windows, icicles, and a white blanket of snow--are so intrigued by it that they can overlook the drawbacks for quite some time. Granted, like with most things, I’m sure the novelty wears off. But in my case, I’m still deeply entranced by the sight of changing colors that autumn brings, followed by the sight of everything covered in white. I tend to be a much bigger fan of cold weather than most people I know, so that may help augment my appreciation for this kind of climate. One day, I hope to spend some time living in Alaska to put my love of more northern weather to the ultimate test! In the meantime, I’ll happily take my dose of cold weather in the Old North State.

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Last Modified: March 6, 2006