Celestial Watering Can
Today is a typical winter's day in this area. The rain is pouring, the skies are dark, and one has the feeling of a perpetual twilight. It feels like one should be getting ready for supper rather than getting lunch ready. There's a brewing storm offshore forecast for today, an explosive cyclogenesis, that is going to bring much needed rain, albeit in not too subtle a way.
Already the tree tops are bending, and the winds are raising their voices in strong gusts that will approach hurricane force this afternoon. The rain is whipping into everything sideways, running from the clouds, trying to burrow into the ground as if to make up for more than a year of drought. There is nothing strange about this storm except its lateness. The first storms of fall generally come at the beginning of October, end of September. This year it's come at the middle of December. Climate change, working its insidious way into our present.
Meteorologists say we'll need about twelve storms like this one to make up for all the rain we didn't receive this past year, and face the coming summer with sufficient water in our reservoirs. But that infers that the coming summer will see a normal amount of rainfall. If the past couple of years are a taste of the future, by next September we will all be praying for water from the sky, as the remains of villages once covered by water, once more show their skeletal remains.
Large cities, such as Vigo, had water for only twenty-five days before this storm hit. However, contaminants have already begun to appear. The regional government continues to say the water is potable, but people have already begun to buy bottled water, trusting their noses more than their politicians. For this afternoon and evening there is an orange alert for rain accumulation, that may well reach 90mm in 12 hours. Hopefully, that will help to dilute the higher concentrations of contaminants that have appeared.
While this is much needed water, the areas that were burned to the bare earth back in September will probably lose some topsoil. There has been some fine rain since then, and many areas were covered with straw to help prevent soil erotion, but the soil is still very friable, and this heavy rain won't help. The wind, too, will probably topple many dead trees, since it is forecast to reach gusts of 140kph in the areas of the fires.
Today is then a day to make caldo and to stay home in the semi-darkness. Turning on the lights will only make it seem like evening. I prefer to wait until then to illuminate what I'm doing. Besides, this way the wind seems stronger, and the rain harder. That is the essence of a winter's storm; darkness with warm food and a warm fire.
And when the lights go out, as they very probably will, candles and paraffin lamps will help get through the stormy night, as they always have.
Already the tree tops are bending, and the winds are raising their voices in strong gusts that will approach hurricane force this afternoon. The rain is whipping into everything sideways, running from the clouds, trying to burrow into the ground as if to make up for more than a year of drought. There is nothing strange about this storm except its lateness. The first storms of fall generally come at the beginning of October, end of September. This year it's come at the middle of December. Climate change, working its insidious way into our present.
Meteorologists say we'll need about twelve storms like this one to make up for all the rain we didn't receive this past year, and face the coming summer with sufficient water in our reservoirs. But that infers that the coming summer will see a normal amount of rainfall. If the past couple of years are a taste of the future, by next September we will all be praying for water from the sky, as the remains of villages once covered by water, once more show their skeletal remains.
Large cities, such as Vigo, had water for only twenty-five days before this storm hit. However, contaminants have already begun to appear. The regional government continues to say the water is potable, but people have already begun to buy bottled water, trusting their noses more than their politicians. For this afternoon and evening there is an orange alert for rain accumulation, that may well reach 90mm in 12 hours. Hopefully, that will help to dilute the higher concentrations of contaminants that have appeared.
While this is much needed water, the areas that were burned to the bare earth back in September will probably lose some topsoil. There has been some fine rain since then, and many areas were covered with straw to help prevent soil erotion, but the soil is still very friable, and this heavy rain won't help. The wind, too, will probably topple many dead trees, since it is forecast to reach gusts of 140kph in the areas of the fires.
Today is then a day to make caldo and to stay home in the semi-darkness. Turning on the lights will only make it seem like evening. I prefer to wait until then to illuminate what I'm doing. Besides, this way the wind seems stronger, and the rain harder. That is the essence of a winter's storm; darkness with warm food and a warm fire.
And when the lights go out, as they very probably will, candles and paraffin lamps will help get through the stormy night, as they always have.
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