Mark Twain - yes, a weather humorist too!

Along with being a brilliant essayist, satirist and writer, Twain was
an avid weather follower, sometimes drawing weather patterns
in the margins of his novels (an example of which is shown in this photo).

Those of you having to alter much-anticipated plans due to our impending snowstorm may well appreciate this excerpt from a letter written by Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) to his wife Olivia on Saturday, March 10, 1888, when a great blizzard prevented her from joining him on a trip to New York. Clemens wrote:

And so, after all my labor and persuasion to get you to at last promise to take a week's holiday and go off with me on a lark, this is what Providence has gone and done about it. It does seem to me the oddest thing--the way Providence manages. A mere simple request to you to stay at home would have been entirely sufficient; but no, that is not big enough, picturesque enough--a blizzard's the idea; pour down all the snow in stock, turn loose all the winds, bring a whole continent to a stand-still: that is Providence's idea of the correct way to trump a person's trick. If I had known it was going to make all this trouble and cost all these millions, I never would have said anything about your going. Now in the light of this revelation of the methods of Providence, consider Noah's flood--I wish I knew the real reason for playing that cataclysm on the public: likely enough, somebody who liked dry weather wanted to take a walk. That is probably the whole thing--and nothing more to it.

An aside here - Along with being a brilliant essayist, satirist and writer, Twain was an avid weather follower, often drawing amusing weather patterns in the margins of his novels (an example of which is shown in this photo).