By Jay Jamison
The morning last week that I wrote this, I had to scrape ice off my car’s windshield. A few days before that the temperature had crested at 80 degrees. When temperatures reach such heights in March, get ready to hunker down. The Ides of March isn’t just the historical date of a political murder two millennia ago, it is also the time to be on the lookout for deadly weather. And right on cue, the lower half of the Lower 48 was clobbered with terrible thunderstorms and tornadoes — the other ‘March madness.’ In New Mexico they had dust storms that culminated in huge pile-ups on I-10. Nebraska had a blizzard with 70 mph winds, making long stretches of I-80 impassable. Here on the prairie, we experienced the usual dose of intense thunderstorms and tornadoes.
The afternoon before beginning to write this column, the forecast had been for thunderstorms. The weather radar on the NOAA weather site indicated that a huge line of thunderstorms was headed for Jacksonville. Getting clobbered seemed to be a certainty. Then the radar indicated a weakening of part of the storm just as it crossed the Illinois River just west of town. The rains came and went through Jacksonville with no ill effect. I went downtown to watch Jeopardy! with some friends. The game show was interrupted by the station’s meteorologist warning viewers that a possible tornado might be forming west of Pekin. It was the same storm that had passed through town earlier. Even at a distance March weather can cause disruptions.
The ice on my windshield was also a reminder of the Good Friday ice storm of March 24, 1978. The heavy coat of ice on trees and power lines knocked out power to most of the area. I remember trying to heat my apartment on Westminster Street, using the gas oven in my kitchen. Twenty-four Illinois counties were declared disaster areas because of that storm. March is not for the faint of heart.
In addition to the worries about crazy weather, March often brings irritating confusions. What to wear? This is not a fashion question, at least not for me. To me, fashion is an opaque conspiracy devised by dubious characters in Paris and New York. The people who decide what’s in fashion and what isn’t, are not in my circle of friends. What to wear in March is about how not to freeze or fry when going outside. As an early riser, it’s often cold outside when I decide on my attire for the day. So, on days when the temperature rises into the 70s, later in the day, you might see me looking like Nanook of the North, buried in several insulating layers of sweaters and coats, attracting curious looks from shoppers wearing shorts. March does that.
The good news is that March is almost over. With any luck the remaining transition from winter to spring will be a smooth one. So, it’s on to April! What can we expect? There is one thing to take our minds off the weather abuse of March and the possible floods, biting flies and tax preparations of April. Not including the sideshow in Tokyo, the official opening day of baseball is March 27.
