A heat wave and Fourth of July crowds have resulted in a flurry of medical issues that kept Island emergency responders busy this week.

George Eliot, pen name for novelist and poet Mary Anne Evans, captured my feelings when she explained, “Certain winds will make men’s temper bad.”

Torrents of rain from recent storms have caused Vineyard Great Ponds to rise to historic levels, threatening shellfish and surrounding homes.

Nothing was truer for February than the proverb “when it rains, it pours.”

Mud season may have come early this year, or it could just be an episode of early mini-mud.

Though January has just begun, the month has gifted us with a whole new vocabulary.

A blustery overnight storm that passed over the Vineyard Sunday and Monday downed trees and roughed up seas. Ferries were cancelled for most of the day, but began running again at about 5 p.m.

Over time, it seems that February is warming faster than other months — perhaps it should be renamed Marchuary.

As long as there is at least six inches, there is life between the snow and earth.

In a word: dry. The year 2016 saw widespread drought conditions over the second half of the year on Martha’s Vineyard, not good for local farmers, but maybe not bad for a resort Island that depends on good beach days.