Winsome Wisdom * Meteorological March Madness by Steve Chappel

The date is March 2, the year 1960. The wind-up alarm clock in the den shows just after 8pm. What started out as just another  rainy day has become a dangerous ice storm.

My mother, brother, sister and I are huddled under blankets at the Chappell home on Signal Mountain in front of the fireplace, our only source of heat. The temperature outside is less than 10 degrees, and we have no electricity.

Outside, the breaking of limbs from the weight of accumulated ice sounds like shotgun blasts. The wind howling outside the windows sounds like a scene from Dracula, further adding to our fear of the situation.

My father is out of town on business and there is no way to contact him. We are all alone in the midst of a nature-created surreal war zone wondering if the next giant limb or tree is going to come crashing through the roof. No one slept in the Chappell home that night.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. We all survived, and now here I sit 57 years later enjoying a day in the sun.

Today's temperature, March 9, 2017, is expected to settle comfortably in the 70’s. So your humble yet serendipitous correspondent straps on the old Nikes and abandons the living room couch for the great outdoors.

As I enjoy a view of the Tennessee Valley from Signal Point, I marvel at how little has changed scenically, in spite of tremendous growth in the Chattanooga area over the past 50 years. The vista of Lookout Mountain, juxtaposed with its twin Elder Mountain and accented by the curves of the Tennessee River hundreds of feet below, looks the same now as it did when I was a Boy Scout working on my photography merit badge.

I bask in the warmth of the not-yet springtime sunshine, and I think back to that dreadful ice storm of 1960. I then glance upward and offer thanks for the change in climate...

(fast forward to March 15, 2017)

Lot's of sunshine, blue sky, just like last week. Looks great from the living room through a picture window. Outside temperature this time is not in the 70's. It's 37°! The low this morning was 23°! No basking in the warmth of the sun today.

Sure would be nice if the climate didn't change quite so much!