'If you don't like the weather in the Ozarks, wait ten minutes.'  --old saying

'We get up in a different world every day.' --Ronda Young, north Greene County gardener

It's true. The weather in the Ozarks can be an absolute crazy quilt of sun, heat, rain, cold, wind, storms, hail, and you name it, when we least expect any of them. Why is this so? The best explanation we know comes from Rachel Snyder in her wonderful book Gardening in the Heartland. Rachel for 31 years edited Flower & Garden magazine in Kansas City. Of our midwest clime she wrote, We are far from climate-tempering influences--no oceans or great lakes are nearby, no mountain ranges to divert the winds, not even any great forests to help cool our summers and warm our winters. Wild extremes of temperature are commonly experienced within a short time.

Here are some notes on our Ozarks climate, season by season.