Ag Cur Sneachta (Arís)
Most of the last couple of days I’ve spent in the garden with the dog hunting rabbits. I got three and the dog got really miffed. So then I went looking for money but all I found was a tennis ball.
Meanwhile the weather goes nuts. Or maybe the weather is perfectly normal and I am nuts. The squirrels will judge.
Hype, hype, hype. I missed out on cycling to an authentic Irish Pub on Sunday night because everything online said rain at midnight in freezing temperatures, which I took to be longhand for ‘ice’.
But then the rain never came and now, such is the history of the Irish pub, I’m worried about having my citizenship revoked not having been very Irish lately.
Unusually for the Midwest the weather was late. And so yesterday it rained. It rained and rained. It rained hours past the time it was supposed to be ice, hours past the hype. It even rained past the time the ice was supposed to be snow.
I loved it because I like rain. It reminds me of going to discos in Ireland when I was a teenager. Oh no wait, I hated discos when I was a teenager. So it was probably the walk from the disco to the chipper that I’m reminded of.
Laughing at the forecast I went cycling in the rain. Positively balmy I thought as it was only a few degrees below freezing. That said if it was forty degrees below I was going out there. Because the kettle was on, and tea without milk is not as good for the heart as reports suggest.
Okay so maybe the milk reduces the goodness of the tea by a small bit, but it’s just maths. Just drink X% more tea to make up for the X% goodness that you’re not getting that you would have been getting if the milk wasn’t so harmful.
As I climbed off my trusty bicycle, and cradled my gallon of milk to the door, the rain turned into snow. Lots of it. My igloo was the only snow on the dead grass of south Kansas City and now not content with raining on my parade, God is snowing on my igloo - which should probably mean something like “I hate to give you even more good news after you’ve just had a load of good news, but…”
So now again the world is unseasonably cold, and unseasonably snowy, and I’ve had it with this country; I’m leaving.
Tell me this though, when rain is really heavy it is said that it is lashing or bucketing down, but what is snowing called when there is tons of stuff rushing to the ground? We’re not talking a blizzard here because there are no winds. Straight down dumping of the snow; no sideways movement. And big flakes initially. It’s plopping down out there?
See Other Things I Wrote and Drew:
• oileán : island
• What’s Irish Radio Like?
• A Kansas City Phone Call to an Irish Mother
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Here in Arkansas they just call it a FLAT DOWN.
It perks up the ears of anyone who works for the
rural electric company ‘cus they know they probably
won’t get any sleep. A FLAT DOWN is the second
worst thing to your garden variety ice storm.
Without any wind, a FLAT DOWN lets the snow
build up on the ( dead ) tree limbs like ice until
they just come crashing to the ground, bringing
power lines with them. Doesn’t do wonders for
the older barn roofs or the chicken houses, either.
Put the kettle back on. We ain’t out if it yet!
Flurrying down? A combination of flurry and lorrying.
Ah Kevin, a Flat Down - that makes sense, as a noun replacing the not-very-specific ’snowfall’, but what is the term for it as it is actually happening? Japers! It’s Flatting Down out there?
Primal - I like the violence of Lorrying but the flurry reference suggests all kinds of whirling little sideways movements.
Dumping?
I should disclose that my entire porch right up to the door is covered in snow, so there must be some wind then. Or I’ve got a very big hole in my porch roof.
“Flatting down out there” is exactly right… only add the
Arkansas accent and you get “Flatndun”. Sounds like a
town in Wales? ROFL. Anyway… if you have snow on your
porch it’s not “Flatndun”… it’s something else. If was truly
“Flatndun” then you would more likely have your porch
roof on your porch instead.
Those of us in the Missouri Bootheel would say “It’s really coming down out there.”
But you’re right, it DOES need a specific word.
Perhaps you could find something on this non-exhaustive list…
Not sure I got my link in correctly…
http://www.mendosa.com/snow.html