Ozark Winter Thunderstorm

Deep unplowed snow pellets. Bursts of thunder and lightning. Downpours of rain on snow. Ice crusted wipers. Yesterday was an exhilarating experience. I bought a new car, a 2005 AWD Subaru Outback Sport, and have been conducting an involuntary evaluation of the car's capabilities in adverse weather. It doesn't snow often this far south in Missouri but this was the second snowstorm in 11 days and I ended up driving through both.
The first time my car handled exceptionally well on the slick, curvy, hilly Ozark backroads. Progress was thwarted 10 minutes from home, the final hill after crossing the Eleven Point river a tanker truck had slid sideways and across both lanes. The Oregon County sheriff informed me that "gonna be 2-3 hawers 'fore we gets this mess cleaned up, got a rig comin' from damn near Cabool." We turned around, crossed the bridge and went to the next most viable road across the river. That cost us over an hour when we were so close to home!
Yesterday the roads were more intense. Another truck had troubles heading up a hill and I was asked to wait when the plow I was following stopped to help. Everything continued to be okay until it wasn't and then it's usually too late. Approaching the current river I saw a large sky to ground lightning bolt followed almost immediately by a thunderous ka-boom and then it started to downpour rain. Once I crossed the river a plow went by going the other way and my lane became increasingly covered by a thick layer of small ice crustlets. I straddled the center stripe, keeping two tires on cleared pavement and the other two plowing through the globulous snow. Highway 106 from Ellington to Eminence was not the best choice of roads considering the conditions. It is very hilly, curvy, with deep ditches, and no shoulders. My lane got so deep I had to move all tires to the plowed surface, which meant I had the whole car proceeding the wrong direction on the left side of the road. Pulling over anywhere was risky, I had to keep the inertia going to avoid getting stuck. Luckily, no one else was dumb enough to be out driving in the middle of nowhere in a snow/ice/rain storm and I managed my way to a friend's house where I waited an hour for the plow to go by the opposite direction and then gave it another shot. The roads were still ice covered but my car seemed to handle that well, it was the deep accumulations that sent my car sliding. It continued to rain and freeze, and lightning and thunder most of the night. I can't remember ever experiencing a winter thunderstorm like that before.

New Job

Down with Assistant positions! No longer am I the Assistant Natural History Biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. I accepted a new job as a Regional Ecologist for the Illinois Natural Area Inventory (INAI) Update. In 1976 Illinois embarked on a task to identify, catalog, and map the remaining natural features present within the state. Since so much of the state's natural communities were heavily destroyed, they recognized the need to undergo this momentous task and as the first state to do this, they set a precedent and the framework for other states to follow. Now over 30 years later, they are updating the INAI by scanning the entire state looking for new natural areas. Some biologists expect that we will find even more than the original inventory although the remaining sites will probably be much smaller. The ecologists that were responsible for the original INAI are nothing less than superstars, and we have huge shoes to fill, a fact that has been emphasized by almost everyone involved in the project. They have hired 5 ecologists and I have region 5, the southernmost 15 counties in Illinois; Perry, Franklin, Hamilton, White, Jackson, Williamson, Saline, Gallatin, Union, Johnson, Pope, Hardin, Alexander, Pulaski, and Massac. I intend to relocate to the Carbondale area within the month. This may be the most diverse region in Illinois and definitely the region with the greatest potential for new natural areas. This is a full time salaried position with benefits that will last for 2 years. I will be in training for the next several weeks and then the work will begin, which will involve scouring topo maps, aerial photographs, and reconnaissance in low-flying aircraft, eventually culminating in a site survey of the biota. We will be supplied with digital cameras so wait for photos of the exciting work!