Hurricanes, Typhoons and Earthquakes

“Of course, you should throw in weather as you write about your brother, how it was raining out the day you finally realized he was always going to be better in school than you, that no teacher would praise you the way they did him. Or it was snowing out the last time you saw your grandfather. He was lying small and broken in his bed and the flakes were big and slow out the window. Weather is a rich and important quality in writing because it’s a real and affecting thing in human life. Lace it through your work.”

—Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir

Tell me a story where weather played a predominant role. Describe it so we can feel the wind, sense the accumulation of snow, or hear the storm cellar door slamming shut. Then write a second story, that isn’t predominantly about the weather, making sure you work weather into the background.