A Portent of Things to Come

The coming heat and humidity...

Give a Mississippian five minutes and they will eventually get around to talking about the humidity. Here in Columbus, they say the worst two months of the year for the deadly combination of heat and humidity are July and August. Yesterday was June 11, and I got a taste of just what that might mean. The temperature reached near mid-nineties and the humidity was around 50%. There was a marked difference between the inside of my house at around 73 degrees, where it was cool enough that when I lay down for a nap with the girls (my kittens), I actually had to use a blanket over my shoulders, and  outside, where I could definitely feel the oppressive humidity even at just 50%, along with the heat. On the gulf coast, however, I have been told for example that no conventions are planned between mid-May and September, because there the heat/humidity is just way too unpleasant.

A Mississippi River Valley...heat haze

I was in New Orleans Louisiana, once before Katrina and once afterwards, both times in May for the Saints and Sinners Writers' Conference. In one instance there were breezes, and that helped immensely in alleviating the discomfort level. So, I can only hope that July and August are months where we also get breezes.

Nor am I a stranger to oppressive humidity, since I lived in San Antonio, Texas, for seven years. There, it's shirt-sleeve weather even in January, and in the summer you can actually see the humidity as a mist glowing around the trees.

Yahoo City, Mississippi (I think)

But I think (so far) that if the other ten months of the year are moderate and comfortable that Columbus will be a great place to live. Of course, that remains to be seen. I've been here in October, March, April, and May in various years, and usually have encountered nice weather. What I'm giving up living in the desert of southern New Mexico is very nice weather for about eight months out of the year (with dust storms dominating from about March through May) and triple-digit heat for at least two months thereafter.

I know I have yet to experience drenching rain storms and tornadoes, but that will be another postcard sometime in the future. Columbus sits up on a bluff, and much of it is downright hilly in the northern part of Columbus. I hope to show pictures of that part of Columbus in another post.