Wouldn’t it be great to get a dollar any time somebody somewhere proclaims “If you don’t like the weather here in [fill in location], just wait a few minutes”?  Of course, there are times when the speaker can’t resist the urge to hedge and talks about it occurring within a few hours… or even a day. I still want the dollar, but this latter pronouncement seems wishy-washy to me. What kind of skill does it take to suggest a chance for a change in the weather over 24 hours? Occasionally the speaker is extra confident and says you only need to wait one minute. Foolishly confident if you ask me. Or at least so I thought.

And the [fill in location] has included places from New England to Florida, Chicago to Oklahoma to… well, most areas of the country. That’s because most of us can probably identify with the underlying message. But, again, if you ask me, it’s not helpful that some refer to entire states or regions of the country when they are warning of the potential for an abrupt change in the weather. Or at least so I thought.

This quote is most often attributed to Mark Twain. Sometimes Will Rogers is credited with this insight, especially here in Oklahoma. Elsewhere credit is given to other individuals or simply “Anonymous”. No one knows for sure who said it first, which is just as well since it’s not the most accurate weather forecast ever uttered. Or is it?

It just seems somewhat dubious the weather abruptly changes within a minute, right? I mean, storms roll in and suddenly there is rain, but you see it developing over a longer period than a minute. How often are you in dark clouds one minute and the next minute the sky is clear blue without any warning? Inconceivable you say? Recurring one-minute changes are going to require some sort of proof you say.

As someone once wisely observed, everybody talks about the possibility of rapidly changing weather, but nobody does anything to prove it happens. Until now. Remember, you are seeing it here first.

Ok, maybe not first. And maybe it’s not as rare as being hit by lightning, especially since we experienced it in a van traveling 65 mph and not standing still. But it was still amazing to watch the weather repeatedly change from sun to a dense wintry fog in less than a minute and then back to sun again as we drove through the Pacific Northwest one day in January. And then when we hit Wyoming, more than once we drove through a white-out snowstorm one minute and then under bright sun the next.

Below is the indisputable proof on our route in the Pacific Northwest to back up this blustery claim. Somehow, I lost the video evidence for Wyoming so you’re going to have to just take my word for it when I say that if you don’t like the snow in Wyoming, wait just a darn minute. And no, we’re not giving you a dollar.

Cheers,
Bob and Julia