Tag Archives: weather

Onslaught of clouds and rain

I grew up on a tropical island and I have to say that winters here can be tough. No, we don’t get the snow and cold of Toronto, the city I went to from Barbados, but the rain… the winter wind storms, the clouds…

We have had a couple breaks where we saw the sun, but so many days this winter have been sunless. And when I say sunless, I mean that at any time of the day the cloud cover is so thick that when you are outside you can’t determine where in the sky the sun is? The sky is a sea of dull gray. This gets to me. As much as I hate the cold, I’d trade a week of frigid weather and snow, just to see the sun in the sky for more than a single day.

This morning looks like we could have a break. I’ll have to take a small walk at lunch, and enjoy seeing and knowing where in the sky the sun is. I’ll charge my solar batteries and prepare for more clouds and rain in the week ahead.

Cue the Annie Lennox song: Here comes the rain: “Falling on my head like a new emotion.” – Or at least a melancholy emotion. There is no doubt that this rain plays with my mood like a sad violin solo… one that I really don’t want to listen to right now. I can hear the tune but don’t know the name of the song or the composer. It doesn’t uplift me, it sustains my mood, waiting for the sun, an external source of light, to lift me from the dole-drums of winter.

Here comes the rain

I woke up before my alarm this morning to the sound of heavy rain. It’s actually a nice sound to wake up to, but it also is a reminder that we are heading into the dark and cold of winter. For those of you that don’t know, I spent almost 10 years growing up in Barbados.

When you live on a tropical island, not too far from the equator, every day gets close to 12 hours sunlight. The rainy season means an hour of heavy rain daily before its sunny again, and sometimes the sun is still shining during those rains. Also, it doesn’t get cold. Ever.

Now I’m living on the edge of a Canadian rain forest on the wet/west coast. I like it better than the chill of Toronto, where we first moved when we came to this country, but sometimes the rain gets to me. Sometimes the damp feels really cold. Sometimes I really miss the sun.

In Barbados the rain was a welcome reprieve from the heat, although sometimes it brought uncomfortable humidity. Here, it can bring a chill. It can come with dull skies that hide the location of the sun in the sky… for days on end. When the rain comes, it can sometimes feel like it’s not going to leave.

For this reason, I load up on vitamin D, I have a natural light lamp on my desk, and I start dressing in layers that includes pairs of long underwear (that I’ll start using soon). People think it’s funny that I wear long underwear from late October through April, but I get chilled easily and am more comfortable hot than cold.

The rains are here. The cold is coming. I have to psych myself up. I have to prepare myself for the short, wet, dark days. I know what lies ahead, and I have to keep my chin up, and keep the clouds outside from creeping in.