MONDAY MUSINGS LIFE IN THE OZARKS

Apologies for the later posting. I had some computer/internet issues.

I live in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. Like the Appalachian and the Catskill Mountains, the Ozark Mountains are actually what you’d call a dissected plateau, meaning we were once a surface plain until tectonic uplifting and then the Canadian Shield glaciers left rivers, streams and time to carve out deep valleys and ravines. We look like mountains in elevation but our elevations are pretty uniform across the range and we don’t have extensive faults and magma of those mountains such as the Rockies.  Elevations where I live are about 1300 ft. Missouri’s topography has a high limestone content with caves, sinkholes, and underground springs and waterways. It’s truly a beautiful state with a lot of diversity and an amazing system of riverways. I’ll be sharing more about life in the Ozarks next month.

I live the pink a little W of the orange area (wiki commons)

The Ozarks aren’t particularly high mountains and so don’t effectively block the cold arctic or the hot and humid Gulf air and means we have cold winters and humid summers. This also makes for some volatile clashes in the way of thunderstorms, high winds, and tornadoes. Most of the tornadoes are in the flatlands and only a few touchdown in the higher elevation plains.

Weather can be extreme in my area and there are different ecological pockets—sort of an independent area where we can get more rain or snow then other areas rather close to us. For example, I have a girl friend that lives about five miles southeast of our town and she hasn’t gotten as much snow this year as we have. I live nine miles northwest of the same town. This last storm, almost two weeks ago, dropped about 10 inches of snow but she only got about 4 inches but did get more ice. It can be pouring down rain here, at the house, and I drive to town (eight miles away) and they have gotten little or no rain. There is actually a rain line on the way. And it’s weird to be driving in rain and then hit a dry area the rest of the way into town.

Not a lot of green yet on our creek

No green yet on trees

This year there wasn’t a gradual transition to cold winter or spring for that matter. We were in the normal fifties with a few spikes into the upper 70’s this fall and someone threw a switch and we were plunged into the teens by the next day and there it stayed for several weeks. Same with spring this year (and last spring for that matter), Twelve days ago we were in the lower teens during the day with snow falling and we got ten inches by the time it was done. Four days later we were in the upper 40’s and lower 50’s and rain and by day six all snow had disappeared and it jumped to spring. It confuses the body. One day you need a coat, gloves, scarf, and boots and the next you find yourself automatically pulling on those things only to realize you don’t need them.

Spring has finally sprung here with birds singing, sunshine, and temperatures in the upper 60’s lower 70’s. This past weekend it was shirt sleeves during the day. I have tulips and daffodils breaking ground by about 3 inches, my tiger lilies just broke ground yesterday. The brown grass of five days ago is now mostly short green. You can see the green slopes of the hills surrounding us.

As my mother says, if you don’t like the weather today, tomorrow it will be different. She’s not far off by that statement. <smile>