The Blizzard, continued ...
What did Coquetta know that the weather scientists didn't?
They had predicted that a low-pressure system would push in from
Arizona, bringing scattered snow showers.
The morning of Dec. 3rd, around when Coquetta got anxious
with our ride and demanded to head home, a high-pressure dome
began forming in Texas to the east of us. The weather scientists
either didn't notice it, or didn't realize what it would do to
New Mexico.
That evening, a rainstorm traveling north into Texas hit the
dome. It veered to the west, heading for New Mexico. Then, in
the small hours of the morning, an arctic express hit the dome
from the north. It also hooked west.
Around dawn, on Friday, Dec. 4, 1992, these three forces collided
over New Mexico and exploded into a blizzard.
###
Early Sunday morning, the county grader finally rumbled down
our road. In some places the snow curled back and flowed aside
like powder. Where the wind had pounded it into drifts, the grader
pushed aside windrows that looked like white rocks and gravel.
As always, I blew kisses to the driver and as always, he turned
into our driveway and plowed it out. We chatted for a moment
about horses and the weather. I don't remember, maybe I also
gave him some home-baked cookies. Then that angel of mercy climbed
into the seat of the grader and went back to county business.
On our way to church, we drove by our harasser's home. His
horse pen was empty. Not one hoof print marred the snow. Perhaps
they were hidden in some jury-rigged shelter behind his home,
I hoped.
On the way back, we stopped by the corner market and picked
up the Albuquerque Journal. It carried a photo from a stockyard
in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. During the blizzard, cattle had
climbed on top of each other into a grisly pyramid. Those who
didn't freeze crushed each other. Some 400 perished.
We never heard again from the man with the skinny horses.
I figured he read the story and realized that we only wanted
to help.
We later learned that hte reason he stopped phoning us was
that he had just died of a heart attack. We never found out what
happened to his horses.
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