When Mother Nature gets in the way

Don't like the weather in Illinois? As the old saying goes, stick around a couple of hours; it's sure to change.

That may seem like clever-enough wit when you're sitting around the kitchen table with a few friends, but when you're huddled against a pelting rain in the bleachers of a high-school football stadium that just minutes before had been drenched in a bright early-afternoon sun, you're disinclined to laugh.

Hundreds of parents, family and friends of high school graduates found themselves in just that position Sunday as a not-entirely-unexpected late-spring storm swept across the suburbs and sent grads, teachers and onlookers scurrying for cover. In schools like Maine West and Prospect, hundreds of graduates found their moment in the su-, er, spotlight, spoiled by Mother Nature.

Like many, if not most, of them, we have to wonder if there's not some better solution for such an important day. The schools strive to prepare contingencies for inclement weather on Graduation Day, we know. Maine West was able to move its ceremony indoors and some schools always hold their ceremonies indoors. Yet, on this particular day, hundreds of graduates didn't get the chance to hear their names called and make the proud walk before family and friends celebrating four years of study and hard work.

Holding the ceremony indoors would certainly have assured these graduates their much-deserved moment, but it also would have shortcomings of its own.

At least at Prospect, the quarters would be cramped and uncomfortable and would accommodate far fewer people who want to share in the graduates' moment. Had it not rained, the decision to move everything indoors on a bright, sunny morning would surely have drawn disappointment and criticism.

It may be that there just was no perfect solution for such situations. To be sure, some forecasts predicted a mid- to late-afternoon shower despite the early sunshine, but given the alternatives, it's hard to fault those administrators who decided to take a chance and try to include more celebrants in a more comfortable setting.

Of course, as Prospect grad Will Hall notes in Daniel Hamilton's Daily Herald story Tuesday, the afternoon had its compensations. "This is one graduation that I am sure no one will ever forget," Hall said.

Not that anyone would argue that every graduation should be marked with rain.

It seems ridiculous to think we'll ever actually control the weather itself, but who knows, perhaps one of those rain-soaked grads will go on to college and help advance the science of weather forecasting to the point that impending storms can be predicted to the hour and minute. Illinois' weather wits will still be able to repeat their climate cliché, and all manner of outdoor events can be timed and managed for success.

Now, that's something everyone will celebrate.