Weather Heebie-Jeebies

I do this every year. I know it’s neurotic. I can’t help it. It gets down to Halloween and I start seriously thinking about the Rifle Opener, second weekend in November. Next I begin to wonder about how the weather will be. Usually it’s in the low thirties and partly cloudy. However, I’ve had some odd variants.

In 2006 I got to my stand just before the drizzle started. It was 50-something. By 0900 I was taking horizontal rain, and 25 MPH winds and falling temperatures. I was wondering if it could get any worse when I heard thunder.

That wasn’t the first time I have had to weather a thunder and lightning on an opener either. It was about 1992 that I had a toad strangler thunder-clumper before sun-up. I just crawled under a big cedar and kept my rifle up under my poncho until it all let up around sunrise.

I’ve had snow. I’ve had temps in the teens. In fact, Opening Day in Kentucky is something I have learned to never take for granted. I am not complaining. It is all something you can plan for. In 2006 I knew what was coming and went out in one set of duds, and came in at 10 AM, dumped the rain gear, grabbed the insulated bibs and went back out.

You can see why I start watching the weather forecasts. The long range forecast I pay attention to comes from the National Weather Service. This is one I can start jonesing a year ahead of time:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=1
There’s also the Almanac.com forecast. That comes out in August of the previous year. I always take The Old Farmers Almanac into the field in the first few trips out every fall to start getting my fret on for next year’s season. If you want to believe in wooly worms and the like. This is your kind of site. Of course, this year I saw pure red wooly worms and several that were pure black crawling up the siding on deer camp. I don’t know what that means, but I’m ready for it.
About 90 days out, I can start watching this

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/

In the first week in November, the wooly worms in my head really start to crawl. I gotta have my forecast and I need it now. The NWS is no longer enough. Starting a couple weeks out, I can start getting an Opening Day outlook from Accuweather.com

http://www.accuweather.com/us/ky/brooksville/41004/forecast-month.asp
For some reason, Accuweather always seems to give me a lousy outlook for Opening Day. Sometimes it’s right, but if it’s going to rain, I want a second opinion. In a few days, Weather.com starts throwing out a 10 day forecast.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/driving/interstate/monthly/41004

. . . and I play one off against the other in my head, always hoping the more optimistic of the two wins out. Meanwhile I start a round of panic buying . . .well, near buying. I start going to all the websites and ordering extra rainsuits, or new waterproof boots or a snowmobile suit. I get already to place the order and then decide to check one more website. Usually one, weatherunderground.com or cnn.com/weather or one of the local TV stations throws me a bone and I cancel the order at the last minute. This year I did manage to score a couple of camo umbrellas before the better forecast came out.

If all else fails, I sit in the corner and rock back and forth with my eyes closed and chant, “Partly cloudy, low 35, high 50. low 35, high 50, low 35, high 50. ” That seems to work the best.

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