Almost tin roof gray

Cliches usually have some truth in them. I was reminded of that this morning when I saw the sky—a leaden sky. The sky is the color of lead and even looks as dense as that metal. It’s a cold, uninviting, winter sky, portending snow or freezing rain or something that feels damp and miserable. So the term may be a cliché but it also holds truth.

Looking at the overcast sky reminded me of how I predicted snow when I was a kid. We lived in town then, and across the street was a duplex with a tin roof. Whenever the sky turned the exact shade of gray as that tin roof, it was about to snow. In my memory, that trick never failed. The sky never turned that shade of gray in summer, even before a summer storm. Only in winter did the sky reach the perfect shade of tin roof gray.

This morning, to my eye, the leaden sky is just a few shades too deep a gray to mean snow is about to fall from it. It needs a few more hours yet to “ripen” into the right shade, but it’s working itself into that direction. We’ll see what happens.