MANSFIELD — The optimists mowing grass in cargo shorts earlier this week have officially jinxed the rest of us.
Mother Nature saw your bare knees, took personal offense and decided to spend the next 48 hours dumping cold rain and wet snow on Richland County — just to teach you some manners.
After spoiling us earlier this month with a few rogue days that had people dusting off golf clubs and arguing about whether it was too late to fire up the grill one more time, November in north central Ohio has finally remembered what it’s supposed to do.
Make us miserable.
If you’ve stepped outside today, you already know the National Weather Service isn’t doing us any favors.
We’re looking at a 100-percent chance of showers today, a high barely scraping 47 degrees and a northwest wind blowing at 13 mph — just brisk enough to ruin a good hat and remind your knees you aren’t 25 anymore.
By tonight, the mercury drops to 33, and around 3 a.m., that cold rain threatens to mix with the four-letter word nobody in Richland County wants to hear before Thanksgiving.
Snow.
Now, before everybody runs down to the grocery store to buy out the bread and milk aisles like we’re bracing for the Blizzard of 1978 … take a deep breath.
Forecasters say we’re looking at “little or no accumulation” tonight, Friday or Saturday. Just enough wet flakes mixed into cold rain showers to make your windshield wipers work overtime and give drivers on U.S. 30 a fresh excuse to forget how their brakes work.
Honestly, none of this should surprise anyone who has lived here for more than fifteen minutes.
If you look at the historical ledger for Mansfield in mid-November, Mother Nature is right on schedule — even if she’s acting a little cranky about it.
Normally around Nov. 11 and 12, our average high sits right around 51 degrees, with overnight lows dipping to 37.
Over the course of the month, our typical daytime highs steadily slide from the mid-50s down into the low 40s, while average monthly snowfall creeps from barely a dusting at the start of November to about an inch and a half by the time we start hanging Christmas lights.
In other words, a soggy 47-degree Thursday followed by a raw, cloudy 40-degree Friday isn’t some meteorological conspiracy. It’s just Ohio doing what Ohio has always done this time of year.
Still, we can’t help but grumble a little when we look at the next 48 hours.
Friday brings a 30-percent chance of rain and snow showers after 5 p.m., followed by a 60-percent shot Friday night with a low around 30. Saturday hangs onto a 20-percent chance of wintry mix after 10 a.m. before things finally settle down.
That means anyone heading out to high school playoff football or trying to rake that last stubborn pile of oak leaves out of the yard is going to want a heavy coat, waterproof boots, and a thermos of something hot.
There is a silver lining for those of us who prefer our sunshine without a side of sleet, though you’ll have to earn it.
Once we survive this damp, gray gauntlet through Saturday night, the clouds finally clear out.
Sunday looks mostly sunny with a high near 44, kicking off a dry stretch that climbs steadily back to 46 on Monday, 48 on Tuesday, and a downright pleasant 52 degrees with full sunshine by next Wednesday.
Overnight lows will still hover right around the freezing mark — 29 to 32 degrees — so you may want to disconnect the garden hose — unless you enjoy paying a plumber in January.
So zip up your jacket, check the tread on your tires, and quit complaining about the drizzle.
Around here, if you don’t like the weather in November, just wait until Wednesday — or ask an old newsman to remind you how much worse it used to be.
