It's Flowering Dogwood Time in My Corner

It's dogwood time in My Corner of the Ozarks. From mid-April to early May, the woodland understory, and many small town back yards are blessed with the showy blooms of the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida.  There are several other species of dogwoods, but only one with showy white bracts (not petals). The flowering dogwood occurs from east Texas to New York and is very common in the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks. 

The flowering dogwood was named the Missouri State Tree in 1955 by the legislature seventy years ago. It is also the state tree of Virginia and North Carolina. 

Many dogwoods decorate yards and byways.

Any excursion to the wooded countryside yields many spectacular views of our dogwoods. 

The redbud, Cercis canadaensis, flowers just before the dogwood each spring. The range of the redbud is similar to flowering dogwood extending a little further north in the Midwest. The combination of dogwood and redbud in early April brings wonderful color to the forest understory.

Early spring is a time of beauty in My Corner of the Ozarks. 

Much Worse than Blizzards

 Blizzards are rare in My Corner of the Ozarks. Sure, we have snow every winter. Maybe an inch or two. And I never thought we were in "tornado alley", but I'm beginning to wonder.  

April 2 was a rerun of March 14. We watched TV weather reports of tornadoes coming into Howell County AGAIN!!

According to the National Weather Service on March 4, 13 tornadoes, strong winds, and large hail hit communities across Arkansas, Missouiri, Illinois, and Indiana. There were seven deaths and twelve other injuries. Homes and businesses were scattered across the landscape. One of the hardest hit in My Corner of the Ozarks was the little town of Bakersfield where three lives were lost.

The storms came near West Plains in Howell County (in My Corner of the Ozarks) on March 14. Pictured above is damage to a business south of West Plains. (Photo from Howell County News.)

 The April 2 storm track was almost exactly the same. It went south of West Plains and remained southeast of Mountain View heading toward Poplar Bluff and Cape Girardeau. There was one death at Cape. 

In March the Missouri Governor requested FEMA damage assessments from Howell, Oregon, Ozark and Wright counties, as well as Bollinger, Butler, Camden, Carter, Franklin, Iron, Jefferson, Laclede, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Perry, Phelps, Pulaski, Reynolds, Ripley, St. Louis, Stoddard, Wayne and Webster counties according to the West Plains Daily Quill. 

According to Quill reporting the initial FEMA damage assements in March estimated about 368 houses destroyed across Missouri, plus 356 with major damage and 1,058 with minor damage. 

The Howell-Oregon Electric Coop reported more than 400 poles broken or on the ground and 6,300 customers without power. Cousin Lynda in West Plains was out of power for several days. 

These two 2025 storms remind me of the May 26, 2024 tornado that hit Mountain View. 

Mountain View Police Chief Jamie Perkins reported in the Howell County News, "I recorded three tornadoes that came through town. The biggest was the north of [US Highway] 60, went out Delp Road, towards Y Highway.”  Perkins said, and Howell County Sheriff Brent Campbell confirmed, there was only one report of a serious injury. One home “a block outside city limits” was blown off its foundation, seriously injuring the occupant. 

A brick home just north of Mountain View demolished by the tornado May 26, 2024. 

May 26, 2024

Looking north over Walmart, Mountain View (Howell County News photo)

Three times in less than 12 months... That is too many. I may have to start selling storm shelters.

Blizzards!!

The January 22 headline says "Blizzard blasts Gulf Coast paralyzing communities from Texas to Florida to Carolinas with record-breaking snow". People have suffered many hardships in this storm.

According to the National Weather Service one of the greatest snowstorms in Southeastern United States history occurred February 9-11, 1973. This storm droped one to two feet of snow across a region that typically sees only an inch or two of snow per year. 

I remember the 1973 snow very well. I was on a college field trip to view game bird habitat in Alabama when 11 inches of snow hit. The secondary highways were unplowed. In every little town there was a snowman in every yard. Our field trip turned into an indoor lecture.

We had a late snow in March 1960 in My Corner of the Ozarks. About 30 inches fell that season. St. Louis recorded the lowest ever March temperature on March 5 at 5 below zero. I remember snow piles all through April. 

According to Lou Wehmer in the Howell County News (14 Jan. 2025) the worst winter blast in the Ozarks came in 1863-64 during the Civil War. On Christmas Day 1863 it was unseasonably warm at 60 degrees. On January 2 it was 22 degrees below zero. It snowed 7 inches on New Year's Day. Snow continued and by January 8 it was over a foot deep. Pictured below is a soldier on picket duty from Harper's Magazine 1864.  

The average annual snowfall in My Corner of the Ozarks is about 10 inches. Of course the range is something like 1-30. Usually our snows are very "pleasant". It looks nice. It is easily removed from streets and driveways. It  goes away quickly (usually). Ice is a different story. We can be paralyzed by ice. Travel is treacherous. Power outages are common. Fallen tree limbs are everywhere. Yuk! 

Our 6-inch snow on January 10 has been gone for several days. It was nice to have for a few days. We even had sledders on our hill. (Not Larry or Linda.)

My Cousin Linda lives in Michigan in the land of "perpetual" snow. When we are greening up in My Corner of the Ozarks she will still have a white landscape. Sorry Linda. 

Two Weeks of Christmas with Brad

Every other year our family gathers for Christmas. 

2024 was our family's year to "skip" the Christmas get-together. We missed them all, but Brad blessed us with a two week visit in My Corner of the Ozarks.

Brad flew into Springfield, MO where we picked him up December 22.  We celebrated Christmas day at home until evening when we joined Depee cousins at Aunt Donna's house.

At Donna's we practiced a Depee tradition of making taffy. There Brad visited a bunch of first cousins and first cousins-once-removed.      

Aunt Janet and Uncle Dwight hosted us at Branson where we saw a bluegrass group, the Petersens, perform. Brad plays and sings in two bluegrass bands in Kenya and has a special interest in bluegrass. 

 

Next was a post-Christmas concert at the Willow Springs Star Theatre by the Southern Ozarks Community Orchestra. Very fine music. Not bluegrass.

Our next adventure was a trip to hike to Greer Spring, the second largest spring in Missouri. Brad likes to hike and we like to take leisurly walks. But we made it down the hill to the spring, and most importantly, we made it back up the hill. 

Then we traveled to Lake Ozark to see the Brent Depee family and watch Dayne play basketball. Good fun!

Before taking Brad back to Springfield to catch his plane on January 5, we heard one more bluegrass concert. The Willow Springs Star Theatre hosted two groups, one from Mountain View, Arkansas, and one from Silver Dollar City at Branson. In Kenya when Brad (born and raised in Illinois) plays in his bluegrass bands, he claims to be "from the Ozarks". Brad's activities this past Christmas season surely boosted his bona fide claim to being an Ozarker.