As we prepare to say goodbye to 2025 and look forward to 2026, I think back to some of this past year’s events.
December of 2024 was a cold month until just a few days before the new year. With temperatures in the mid to high 30s, we weren’t ready for what we would wake up to in a few days.
Some of the coldest mornings that we had all winter came the second week of January and continued for about two weeks. Then the temperatures rose again to the mid-30s with Feb. 6 hitting 50 degrees. The old saying, “this is the calm before the storm,” was to hold true.
On Feb. 6, the second of two ice storms that I remember hitting our area, the Thorn Creek, happened. This was by far the worst of the two—the other happening on an Easter morning many years ago.
I was awakened in the early morning to hard rain and wind blowing. Being an early riser most mornings, 4:00 to 5:00 am, I got up and realized that the rain wasn’t quite so hard any longer.
I did my morning devotions and was having a cup of coffee when the electric went off. I have a whole house generator, and the lights were back in seconds.
The news was warning of possible freezing rain but when I opened the front door, I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Everything was covered with a coat of ice! The rain had stopped, and it was like everything was quick frozen.
I made my way across the road to feed the cats and all the while I could hear limbs and trees falling. I put ice-melt on the steps to get back down and on the blacktop so I could get back in my yard and to my porch.
I called my sister who lives on the Doe Hill Road to see what was happening at her house. Doe Hill Road was blocked at numerous places with many trees from Moyers to the Highland County line. There was no way of driving from one point to the other.
The rescue squad was called to go to a house where a tree had fallen on it. They of course could not get there—thankfully no one was injured.
Most of the timber had been logged from this area years ago and what was left would be logged in the future. Not anymore!
One section of Thorn Mountain was hit hard. Everyone who drove that way after the road was partly cleared, said it looked like a war zone. The trees stood like toothpicks all the way to the top of the mountain. There were no tops in the trees and few limbs left on the trunks.
Unlike the flood of 1985 that swept everything away, the ice brought down the timber where it was standing. The habitat for much wildlife changed or was completely gone.
The farmers, along with help from neighbors and loggers, spent weeks cutting trees off fences, repairing fences for miles, and cutting firewood for the next season. I have often said that farming is a hard job with little pay or rewards.
Many of the fences destroyed were the line fences—the fences that separate one farm from the neighbor’s farm. The cost of putting up new fence is quite expensive, and to look out and see new fence, old fence—regardless of the age lying on the ground, broken and tangled with timber lying across this mess—was heartbreaking.
The power company worked for days with help from other crews from another county, to restore electricity. The state road crews worked for weeks and months to get parts of trees and limbs out of the ditches and off the road banks. There are still places where the big ditches aren’t completely cleaned.
We moved from a hard, rough weather event in February to spring, and then to summer that brought a lot of rain to Pendleton County.
The pastures and hay fields were the best they have been in a few years, but there was one problem—the fields stayed so wet that the first cutting hay couldn’t be made unless on higher ground. A lot of first cutting hay couldn’t be made until July and some even in August.
Farmers were concerned that there would not be a second cutting of hay until September, if then. Our abundant rainfall wouldn’t last.
Much of Pendleton County went into a hard drought and not just in the Thorn Creek area. Some farmers would start feeding hay early in October because the pasture was gone.
The hope was that the county would get much needed rain before the cold weather and freezing temperatures set in. I am pleased to say that we did get some good measurable rain near the end of October and into November.
As I close this article we are in the middle of December and it is almost a repeat of December 2024. There have been two measurable snowfalls and many mornings with freezing temperatures.
One morning things were covered with ice, slick roads, school delays and closings, and today we are experiencing an Arctic blast of cold air with the temperature at 10 degrees in mid-afternoon. One might say this is payback for the mild winters we had several years ago.
What will winter 2026 be like? I am not a fan of winter weather so I would much prefer milder weather. One thing is for certain, we will all have to deal with whatever the days might hold.
You might ask why certain areas receive such devastation and harsh winter weather while surrounding areas do not. I can’t give an answer.
I do know that residents that live just a few miles away in every direction could hardly believe that the Thorn Creek was hit with such an ice storm. A lot of credit is given to the sun that took over and within hours had melted the ice. The residents would now take over and restore their area as much as they possibly could.
We watch the news each day and see that someone, somewhere, is going through a devastating weather event and we think how do those people go on with their lives. People help people! God created each one of us in His image less we forget why we are on this earth and what our work is to be.
An update on a previous article—The Ruthless Ravens:
Mrs. Raven and the two children seem to have moved on. Mr. Raven was on vacation for a few weeks but returned to continue his mischievous ways. After a few days of mischief, Mr. Raven seems to have moved on. Maybe, Mrs. Raven told him it was time to join the family for the winter.
Violet R. Eye
