December twenty first, the winter solstice, has passed us by. We're building daylight hours as days increase and nights decrease. Very powerful imagery, as 99% of the time this is also the start of the worst of a year's weather.
This January, in southern Alberta, Canada, we're feeling the effects of the El Nino winds. Strong, sometimes ominous winds come through a pass in the Rocky Mountains, an effect of wind and low pressure, called a Chinook wind. Translated to English, the name means Snow Melter or Snow Eater. A force that has to be seen to be understood.
Long distant memories of Chinook winds in my hometown, Fort Macleod, Alberta, still haunt me when the winds blow. Crushing winds, enough to lift your footsteps walking down the street. Hundred mile an hour winds that howled through that little town, causing business signs and lights to implode in the storms.
Gentler times now, only rare Chinooks are that strong....usually, only 70 or 80 miles per hour is a good wind speed for a Chinook. Last fall showed us the biggest of Chinooks, highest wind speeds...pure energy, offered to travellers, shoppers, women trying to hang out the laundry or close the garage door.....
All that for this night. Cold as hell, snowing for one of the rare times this winter. Fierce with north winds and blowing, drifting snow....
I'd love to see a Chinook tonight...but the weatherman says, we have to wait all night for the wind to start.
How low pressure can do this, I have no idea.....but even counting the migraines these winds can cause, I want the wind to howl around the corners of this building, I want the warmth to return in the wind...
.....I suppose I'm aging, to wish for that.....
