Weather Change Horrid for High Schoolers

By Hayden Gonzalez –

April showers bring May flowers.

The beginning of that famous saying turned out to be true. Let’s just see how the predicate turns out.

Throughout the last 30 days or so, there have been several days where it has done nothing but rain the entire day. In April it rains about 3.4 inches every week, but as of this year, we are above normal by 4 inches.

“I hate the rain. It makes me feel like I’m moving rapidly slow,” said senior Henry Kohler.

Many students miss school either because they are sick because of the weather change or just don’t feel like coming to school in the rain.

Feeling like they are being “robbed of summer with all this weather issues that we are having, ” according to senior Noah Kuhn, is one of the many side effects found in the minds, immune system and sleeves – right after they wipe off their nose, that is – that are going around Penn Manor High School.

Rain, rain and more rain has been on the radar recently causing thunderstorms and even tornado warnings. Photo courtesy of Rebelsurvivor.com

There are many different medications that you can take to prevent some of the other side effects, runny, stuffy and itchy noses:  Zyzal, Claritin D, antihistamines and decongestants. But with the weather being such a disaster, these medications are not going to work at such a fast pace.

Rain has been prevalent over the past week, causing flooding in some areas and, an even more important problem, mold is starting to form.

“Mold is so nasty it makes my stomach turn,” said Francisco Ramos. The green, fuzzy fungi is being seen in a variety of places because of the damp and wet conditions out in the environment.

The flooding has caused more and more mold to grow throughout the Lancaster County region, which in turn, is adding up to the total amount of pollen that is being blown around throughout the day.

“When it rains it makes me feel like I’m down and unable to do anything,” said Alyssa Figueroa, a senior.

Children with allergies are bound to sneeze more than usual, and it also can cause problems breathing for people that have asthma. Every time someone breathes in air from a plant that they could possible allergic to, it could be the start of a very long relationship between the allergy sufferer and the sniffles.

Also, recently there has been severe weather warnings, tornadoes and flooding. In fact, 2011’s month of April was the bringer of the most deaths ever from the natural disaster with the name derived from the Latin word, tonare.

“It is crazy how we (might) get a tornado here in Lancaster,” said Kim Alexander.

Pollens, mold and wet weather come with the package included that come with the fourth month of the year. With that comes sneezing, runny noses and more rectangular boxes with a white flag waving out of it and the letters K-L-E-E-N-E-X labeled on the front around the house.

Penn Manor students will just have to live through these two months. Then, it’ll be summer’s turn to bring something of its own.

Sunburn.