Spring is an amazing season. The warm and the cold air fight for possession of territory just like armies. As I have mentioned before going Interstate 77 from the Virginia mountain plateau to Charlotte , NC can be a trip of changes. Yesterday it was like riding a rollercoaster which reminds me of our life as transitional adults which I like better than aging baby boomers.
First the temperature was in the upper fifties on Fancy Gap mountain which by the way, I promise to capture by camera on my next trip. By the time we got to the foot of the mountain, the temperature had gone up to the mid sixties. We had only travelled a few more miles to Mount Airy and the temperature dropped back to the mid-fifties.
After visiting our friend Steve (thanks Steve for the words encouraging Glenda to consider a Beaufort home), grabbing an ice cream cone at Speedy Chef (home of the best soft ice cream for miles around), and placing silk flowers on Glenda's parent's grave, we headed to Charlotte which took us back to I77. We immediately saw the black cloud looming ahead of us. Little did we know what was in store for us.
Of course since we were tuned to a Greensboro, NC radio station, enjoying some easing traveling music, there were no warnings of what we were headed into. First the rain increased in intensity and after about ten miles, the hail started and things started to deteriorate rapidly. I'm a believer in slowing down but not stopping along side the road during storms in these situations so we kept going at a reduced speed. Then the bottom fell out, and the hail started coming down so fast that the road had a layer of ice on it.
I felt the Volvo Cross Country all wheel drive kick in a couple of time. Fortunately just as the hail started to come down so fast that our windshield was fogging up due to the rapidly dropping temperature, we came to Route 67 in Yadkin Country. I managed an exit and we took cover under the roof covering some pumps at a gas or petrol (more on that later) station. Glenda was amazed that I could see, but this was Yadkin County, home turf, so I suspect there was some special guidance taking place.
The temperature had dropped to 47 degrees in just minutes. We moved on a short time later after the intensity of the storm had slowed. The edges of the road were still white with hail and some cars which had not taken shelter had a lot of ice on them. It took us another ten miles to drive out of the storm. The storm was even newsworthy and got a mention in a Winston Salem Journal article, "Severe Storms Hit the Piedmont." (registration required)
The storm began when warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico collided with a cold front along the North Carolina and Virginia border, said Mike Strickler, a hydro meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh.
At 4:45 p.m., it dumped about an inch and a half of hail on the corners of Wilkes, Surry and Yadkin counties, bringing traffic to a standstill on I-77 near Elkin, area law-enforcement officials said.
About 15 minutes later it blew into northwestern Forsyth County, dumping hail as large as golf balls on parts of Lewisville and Pfafftown.
It was a truly impressive storm, and very threatening even from the rear view mirror at seventy miles per hour. We could tell we were getting out of the storm by the increasingly warm temperatures. First we got into the fifties and then we rapidly climbed through the sixties before topping out at 72 degrees. You can actually see the change in the air by looking at the second picture I took, Clear Skies. It was an amazing experience sort of like being in your mid-fifties. There are ups and downs, but you just keep on going with the knowledge that this too will pass. Passing through warring frontal zones apparently is more dangerous than I thought.
About thirty miles north of Charlotte we saw the first Bradford Pear tree in full bloom. We found after arriving in Huntersville, twenty miles north of Charlotte, that the kids had mowed their yard the previous weekend and some of the Bradford Pear trees were already starting to get leaves. I actually think Bradford Pears are most beautiful at night in their short burst of glory. Perhaps I'll capture the image of one as they bloom here in the Roanoke Valley in a week or two assuming we don't get a late season snow storm to devastate them.
Earlier in the post, I used the word petrol. When we lived in Canada it was common to hear some of our English friends refer to gasoline at petrol. When we moved to Roanoke, our authentic Scottish Presbyterian minister used to refer to our parking lot at the church as a car park. He often mentioned that we couldn't beat First Baptist in numbers but we had a better car park. Well I used the word petrol in honor of my first TrackBack. I won't get into technical details but an English based weather blog, "Rising Slowly," referenced my "Nova Scotia Winds" post. Since as most folks know, I'm something of a weather fanatic, I'm glad to find the connection and have added their RSS feed to my newsreader-aggregator NewsFire.
Well I rooting for the warm weather to win, but we're clearly in a battle zone for a while longer. Of course there's not a better seat for the battle than our view from the mountain.
