It’s cold.
The current temperature is 32° with a wind chill of 25°. There is snow on the ground from yesterday evening’s snowfall. It looked for all the world like a mid-February snowstorm for about 30 minutes. The snow is not much – maybe half an inch or so – but enough to cover the grass. More snow is forecast for Friday afternoon, maybe 1-2″. Average temperatures for the remainder of this week and into next week are 15° below normal. The average high in April is 55°. That’s not going to happen for at least the next seven days.
The weather is just another factor in making the stay-in-place guidance just that much harder to bear. The T.S. Eliot phrase “April is the cruelest month” from The Wasteland never had more resonance than now. Spring always arrives in the Northeast last, and even the first 10 days of May can feel much like winter. It would be more tolerable if the weather were just a touch warmer, so one could sit outside in the sun and escape the dry air of a heated house. Being safe and warm in a cozy heated house is a great feeling in late January; not so much in mid-April.
There was one day this month where I was able to take a chair and my book outside and sit directly in the sun for a few hours. It was warm enough that I got the sensation of being sunburned. On my walk yesterday, however, the feeling was different. No one was on my usual loop. It was cold, cloudy, and the wind off the lake was noticeable. Two hours later it was snowing.
The world now seems to be Eliot’s wasteland. One can’t really take in the full enjoyment of the coming spring. I fear that the coming warm weather will be too much for people to resist, and they will want to get out to the beaches and parks and other summertime recreational areas. I am looking forward to being able to sit in the fresh air in my screened-in porch or my backyard. That will be enough for me. I am not sure it will be enough for a lot of other people. The coming spring and summer has much potential for much more wasting of lives. -twl