The weather guys are doing their best to scare us now, promising a big snowstorm for the next couple of days. We’ll see. I do love a blizzardy view out my window, however, and look forward to that. Winter weather has played a part in a few of my books (all of which are set in Minnesota or Wisconsin, for the most part), but as I do a mental scan of the ones set during summer, I can’t think of how weather played a role in those stories. Frigid air and paralyzing snow tend to provide a useful setting for the dramas involving my often emotionally numbed protagonists. Perhaps if I wrote more often about bawdy adolescents I would be more inclined to conjure up some summer heat.
Off the top of my head: The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder) has to be the best weather story ever. Other suggestions?
MQ
I always loved Brian's Winter by Paulsen and of course The Snow Queen. I wish we would get some snow, but it rarely snows in NC. We look forward to the half a dozen ice storms every year.
For summer stories, you can't beat Louise Fitzhugh's The Long Secret. Summer is the perfect time for transformations, and I love Beth Ellen's switch from meek to not so meek after all.
Fever 1793 for more summer.
Giants in the Earth for winter.
Snow by Uri Shulevitz captures exactly how my kids feel about snow every time it falls.
Yes–I remember the weather in all of those books! MQ
Our weathercasters in Kansas City love to over-hype the weather. I heard someone yesterday refer to these broadcasts as predictions of Snow-mageddon.
The climax of my novel includes a heavy rainstorm, a swollen creek, a nervous horse and a lightning strike. I'm really throwing stones at those poor up-the-tree characters!