After more than a week in the balmy, humid air of Ohio, we returned to Missouri yesterday afternoon, arriving at dusk. Stepping from my pickup, we were enveloped in cool, dry air, reminiscent of October. Adding to that illusion, a white-throated sparrow was singing his homesick tune, not yet off to Canada; indeed, this may have been the latest that I have heard that northern songbird in a central Missouri spring.
The fall-like air is courtesy of the recent storm system that pummeled the Southeast with tornadoes and floods. On the backside of its massive circulation, cold air has dropped into the Heartland, leaving some snow across the Northern Plains and keeping afternoon highs in the mid 50s (F), from the Front Range to the Mississippi Valley. Today, a southwesterly flow will begin to warm the region and, by tomorrow, May will have reclaimed Missouri.
While many residents were surely not pleased to experience October conditions in early May, I found the air to be exhilarating. After all, the hot, humid summer will arrive soon enough and, when we are caught in its oppressive grip, this brief, chilly invasion will become a fond memory.
