THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602020212
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
The incredible storm of public support for weatherman Duane Harding, who was fired recently from WTKR-TV, points out not only how much we appreciate ``Dr. Duane'' but also how much we all care about our weather.
Folks around here have a love-hate relationship with the local climate and rightly so. The weather, like a 2-year-old, is an unreliable recalcitrant creature that keeps us on the edge of our seats from one moment to the next.
Will we get rain or will we get snow? Will the hurricane come or will it go out to sea? Will it be cold enough for a frost or won't it? One day in winter it's 70 degrees, the next day, it's 30.
Often weather on the ocean is not even the same as it is in other parts of the city, especially when it comes to wind conditions. Joy Eliassen, who is in charge of whale watching boat trips for the Virginia Marine Science Museum, lives in the Back Bay area. When the wind is coming from the southwest, the bay is rough and nasty. On the other hand, the ocean could be smooth enough for whale watch trips, she said.
``It's what direction the wind is blowing in that's important,'' she said. ``When it's blowing strong from the northwest it's way too rough for trips, but wind from the west flattens out the waves. It makes a pretty smooth trip.''
I bet some of you are like me. I have a wind gauge, a rain gauge, a barometer, an outdoor thermometer and a 1996 Farmer's Almanac. At the very least, I call up the weather on the phone in the morning and evening each day, no matter what's predicted.
Weather aficionado Dr. Pam Strotmeyer, a Virginia Beach physician, is one of us for sure. Like many in Virginia Beach, Strotmeyer sails and she loves the water, so she has more than a passing interest in the weather's effects.
``I love the weather,'' Strotmeyer said. ``I watch the local weather and I watch the Weather Channel. I know the weather in the morning and in the evening.''
She loves understanding the ``whys'' of the weather and what people mean when they use weather words like ``jet stream.'' She's been especially interested in recent weather patterns. These are the ones that have kept us with a wary eye on the weather for most of last month.
Warm moist air keeps moving up here from the South and cold waves keep rolling across the country and the two rarely meet at the right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) time and place to leave us with much snow.
``We're right on the cusp all the time,'' Strotmeyer said. ``Is this going to happen? Is that going to happen?''
Our oasis here in southeastern Virginia bordered on two sides by the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean really is an unusual location in many weather ways. Notice that many gardening books and catalogs lump us in with more Southern states in their gardening zones.
Southern Living magazine even classifies us as the ``lower South.'' This zone includes just a portion of Hampton Roads and moves on down the coast even into Florida.
That's probably why some very Southern species of plants like Florida sawgrass, are growing right here in Virginia Beach. The area along the North Landing River where the sawgrass grows is especially noted for this phenomena. It's also probably why we have that ``iffy'' situation when we worry about the possibility of an early fall frost or a late spring one.
It's always a ``weather or not'' situation. With nothing being 100 percent sure, the very best thing we can have is a weatherman we trust, one who's giving the best odds based on the best information, a man like Duane Harding.
P.S. Ernie Bowden of Carova Beach, N.C., will speak on the land use and history of Back Bay at a Back Bay Restoration Foundation meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Princess Anne Recreation Center. The meeting is free and open to the public. To find out more, call 546-9261.
A PROGRAM ON WHALES for preschoolers, ages 3 to 5, will take place from 2 to 3:15 p.m. or from 3:45 to 5 p.m. Wednesday in the new Salt Marsh Pavilion at the Virginia Marine Science Museum. The fee is $5 for members and $7 for non-members. Call 437-6003.
PRESSED FLOWER BOXES is the topic of the Herb Society of America's meeting at 1 p.m. Feb. 11 at Norfolk Botanical Garden. The $8 fee includes all supplies except for dried flowers, which must be supplied by participants. Call 479-1979. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
by CNB