Fall or Winter??

Winter photos by photographer Tamra Turnbull, North Platte, Nebraska

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Mother Nature is having a good laugh at us now!

Snow was predicted in our part of Nebraska Friday night. Two to three inches the forecasters said. The weather forecaster have all this scientific data, latest equipment in tracking storms, and many decades of records to find historical data. So when the weather center predicts two to three inches of snow - and the TV station airs that prediction - we tend to believe the words have come straight from God's lips to our ears.

Friday night someone was not listening evidently. There were snow flurries in the evening and the wind picked up later that evening. There was just a skift of snow when I went to bed around midnight or so. The wind had died down.

When I let the dogs out at 7:30 Saturday morning we all got a surprise. There had to have been a foot of snow, if not more. Even without a ruler I knew there was more than two or three inches of snow on the ground, and it was still snowing.

The official range of snowfall was from 12 to 17 inches in the North Platte area. I don't have a great memory for weather statistics, but I think this has to be the most snowfall this early in the season for many years, if ever. One source said it was the greatest accumulation this early since weather records were first kept in the late 1800s.

While children welcomed the snow and a chance to go sledding and play outside, the snow has a slightly different meaning to farmers who still have crops in the field.

The snow weighted the cornstalks down to the ground, making it more difficult or impossible for the machines to get the corn off the stalk. Corn on the ground or left on the stalk means a loss to the farmer. The corn also needs warm and dry fall days to finish drying so it can be picked. I'm not sure what such a significant storm will do to the corn's moisture.

An acquaintance said she was driving in an isolated part of our area Friday and came upon a herd of cattle being driven down the road. The rancher must have suspected the nice weather was coming to an end and wanted to get his cattle from summer pasture back to the home place before the winter snows hit. Maybe he should have called the weather predictors with his observations.

The sad news is that more snow is predicted for tonight.

One source predicts a long and wet winter, while another predicts a fairly mild winter.

We need to remember who is in charge of this weather and it's not the weather service or the TV station weatherman.

Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to replenish my pantry.