Cold Weather

Here in the central Philippines, about 10 degrees above the equator, sweating is a pastime; almost a hobby. A temperature drop, like the one we’ve had recently, is a shocking experience for those unaccustomed to the bitter cold of more temperate climes. The folks here are just not used to it and winter attire is as common as air conditioning in the Arctic.

A ‘low pressure’ settled in about two weeks ago and we’ve had nothing but rain and cold. Since that time, the low pressure became a tropical storm, and has since been upgraded to a tropical depression. I don’t understand weather terminology: How can a depression be an ‘upgrade’? Think how low a person would have to sink in order to upgrade to a depression? But the weather does it all the time. And why tell us about the pressure, in the first place? We don’t give a tinker’s damn about pressure! We want to know if it is going to be rainy or sunny; cold or hot. We can’t feel atmospheric pressure. We can’t see it or hear it or smell it. We see rain. We feel it. We feel cold and hot. I believe those meteorologists should just stick to studying meteors and leave the weather to us common folk.

There’s a restaurant that sits by the pier in Ft. Myers Beach, Florida. On the ocean side of the outdoor dining area is a twenty pound stone, tied to a stout rope, hanging out over the water. It’s called a “weather rock”. When the rock is wet, it’s raining; when dry, it is not. If you can see it, it is daylight; if not, it’s night. If it is rocking to and fro, gale force winds are in effect. That rock is, in essence, an authority on current weather conditions. Granted, it might lack the ability to predict, but so do the weather people. For anyone who hasn’t got the sense to step in out of the rain, they can depend on the accuracy of that rock, more than that of the weather channel – pressure be damned!

Back to the cold snap: Fortunately for me, I’ve had a lifetime of experience with below-freezing temperatures, snow, sleet, icy roads, thick frost on the windows and finger-numbing cold that carries a bite. But I left my thermals and down coat back in the States. Kind of dumb, I know! But I never expected the temperature to plummet to the lower 70’s.