Changing of the Seasons

The changing of the seasons is usually a gradual shift between the long bright days of summer, and more cold, crisp days of autumn. This was not the case in New Orleans this fall, however. First, let me mention how much I miss fall back home. It may be my favorite season, there is just something special about it. The cold, the crispness, the rustling of fallen leaves, the explosions of colors in the trees, etc. The activities- doing corn mazes in a full moon, hayrides, or just walking through the forest with a pallet of colors surrounding you and a slight breeze.

Here in New Orleans we sort of had an Indian summer, I say "sort of", because, is it really an Indian summer if there's never any fall to begin with? It's normally hot and humid until late September, when it cools off and progressively turns into the 2nd season of Louisiana, not-summer. But up until yesterday, it was 90s and 90% humidity virtually everyday, and true to monsoon season, every afternoon there was intense rainstorms, sheets of rain pounding the sidewalk and the streets fill up with rain. There was a week break mid-September, but it was only false hope.

Last night the season changed in about 6 hours. Yesterday, there was a high of 92F, about 85% humidity, and an early afternoon shower. A powerful cold front came through, waking me up around 2am. I had just fallen asleep about 30minutes ago, having spent most of the night writing a paper on how I could fix all of Brazil's economic problems in 20 pages. (an exaggeration, of course) I was awoken by a crack of thunder, and the pounding of rain on the roof. I opened the blinds and watched the storm for a while, 30minutes, 2 hours, I'm not really sure. I watched as the pounding rain cleansed the sidewalks and streets of New Orleans, doing it far more efficient than any government service could do.

When I woke this morning to come to work, it was definitely a new season, that of not-summer. Not-summer in New Orleans is generally 70s of highs and lows of 50s, and a decent amount of wind. It's a bit chilly in the day, and colder at night, and progressively gets to the low of not-summer, which is high of mid50s and low of mid30s in the winter months of January-February. It rarely ever hits freezing temperatures here on the Southshore (south of Lake Pontchatrain) and if it does, the media issues plenty of freezing alerts.

I have to say, I'm glad it's not-summer. No longer do I break a sweat walking to campus and back. And I have to say, I think that the late summer makes the semester fly by even faster. When it feels like summer, you kind of forget it's September or mid-October. Now, it feels like school, and Thanksgiving is only a month and a week away, and thus, we only have 5-6 weeks left in the semester. Maybe Tulane should put that up on the admissions website as a per.