Guess who got immediately ill upon moving back to Ohio? This guy.
I’m not sure whether to blame it on the air, the elevation, or the obscene pollen count that’s been happening recently, but I’ve spent a fair amount of this first week coughing and sniffling my way through unpacking. It is not charming.
There’s a lot that’s different and a lot that’s the same about the northeast Ohio climate and the coastal Massachusetts climate. Both are, uh, unpredictable. It can be 70 and sunny in the morning, raining in the afternoon, and predicting snow the next day. The joke is the same in both places: if you don’t like the weather, just wait ten minutes. There is indeed more that unites us than divides us.
There is one thing that Boston does not get that I’ve really missed, and have talked to other relocated Midwesterners and heard the same thing. There aren’t really summer thunderstorms.
Now before you leap in and tell me, “There are so summer thunderstorms in Massachusetts, we get thunderstorms all the time, Boston rules, go Sox,” I’m going to stop you and tell you it’s just not the same. Northeast Ohio gets these rolling, powerful thunderstorms that black out the afternoon sky. They crash and boom and shake the foundations, and once they pass you get the most soothing, constant “woosh” of pouring rain for at least 20 minutes. Once it stops, everything is lit up green like it’s glowing from within. And there could easily been radiant sunshine right after the way because, well, it’s Ohio. If you don’t like the weather, just wait ten minutes.
