The wind has been blowing hard enough to bring the outdoor cat in. And while it is not truly cold, the wind makes it feel like winter, which is nice for a change.
The developing trend is late autumn warmth, heat that makes it risky to store potatoes much earlier than mid- to late October. The storage barns are cinder block hallways built into or banked by earth. They are improved mid-century root cellars, designed to the specs of a regional growing season that once seemed permanent and perpetual.
If your occupation does not put you in regular contact with the weather, it is possible to normalize the way “our” season is changing. Some people even find themselves enjoying it. When you tell them that cold is normal, even helpful, they wince and say, “I hate winter.”
What they have been taught to hate is any level of discomfort. If you listen to the meteorologist, in lieu of cold, they’ll emphasize the wind. They report, with grave accuracy, that the windchill makes 45 feel like 37.
My father used to say that windchill wasn’t real. To a degree, I believe him: Windchill is a fringe weather topic that mainly concerns mountaineers and, sometimes, ill-fated tourists. Windchill is granted popular recognition because it can help predict how quickly frostbite sets in … when it is below freezing.
If you listen to the wind, it sounds cold. The dry leaves rattle. I hear my neighbor’s wind chimes — clang, clang, clang — as the next set of gusts begins to roar across the field. It sounds very much like rough water. It crashes against the phragmites. It whistles as it crosses the fence line and thunders as it pushes the tall sorghum down. The barn doors smack and shimmy hard on the stays of their tracks.
In the safety of the house, old windows wail. Like the orchestra’s cymbals, there is the occasional unknown crash. The noise is variation, and it emphasizes the invisible drama outside. The wind, except for the force, can’t be seen. But it is the lucky phenomena of planetary forces managing what would otherwise be the gross buildup of heat or cold.
It is wind that circulates and thus moderates the extreme impact of our mother star.
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