Tomorrow is Groundhog Day and in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (say that three times fast) legend has it that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow and doesn’t see its shadow, there will be an early spring. On the other hand – or paw as the case may be – if the groundhog sees its shadow, then we will be in for another six weeks of winter.
Whether or not the groundhog, aptly named “Punxsutawney Phil,” has a good track record of predicting the weather is up for debate.
What’s not debatable, however, is the fact that creative writers have long used weather events as key elements in their short stories, novels, poems, movies, and more. In no particular order, here are some memorable books and movies with weather as either the antagonist or a key element in the plot:
Books – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, drought and dust storms; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, hurricane; Bleak House by Charles Dickens, mud; Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, storm; A Painted House by John Grisham, heat and rain; and The Wild Palms by William Faulkner, Mississippi River flood.
Movies – The Poseidon Adventure, 1972, undersea earthquake/tsunami; Twister, 1996, tornado outbreak; Earthquake, 1974, well, an earthquake; Sharknado, 2013, sea cyclone; The Wizard of Oz, 1939, tornado; The Day After Tomorrow, 2004, cataclysmic weather events that plunge the world into a new ice age; Frozen, 2013, cold and ice; The Perfect Storm, 2000, hurricane; The Mist, 2007, fog; Key Largo, 1948, hurricane; The Finest Hours, 2016, storm in the Atlantic; and The Impossible, 2012, undersea earthquake/tsunami.
Pamela’s Prompt: Using Weather Events as a Springboard
For today’s prompt, set a timer for five to 10 minutes and write about a weather event. It can be anything, real or imagined. Maybe it’s a windstorm in the middle of the night at an isolated campground. Or it could be an unexpected blinding blizzard in the mountains of Colorado.
Who is experiencing these weather events? Is it a group of teens on an impromptu camping trip? Perhaps they didn’t let their parents know where they planned to camp. Perhaps they don’t have a way to contact anyone. For example, the cell service may be poor on top of the mountain, so their phones are useless. Will they survive? Will anyone be injured? What lessons do they learn?
If you’re a science fiction fan, imagine an alien world where weather events are entirely different than they are on Earth. Does the rain fall in drops so big they can cause a brain injury? Does it “brain” on the characters every day or just one day in a millennium. What would they do to prepare? Will they survive the “braining”? I know I’m going off in a weird direction here, but that’s what creative writing is all about. Who knows? You may come up with the perfect weather event to use as a springboard for a best-selling novel or a box-office hit.
Ready? Set? Go!