The Weather Outside Is Frightful
Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.
-Lazarus Long (1912 – )
It was a white Christmas in Atlanta for the first time since 1882. Columbia, SC had its first one since record keeping began over a century ago. Snow has blasted through the entire northeast, leaving a foot here, two feet there, stranding travelers, caving in roofs — the whole blizzard works, in other words.
On the other side of the country, California is under a deluge of near-Biblical proportions. In Fresno, I think they’re building arks. Just in case.
Meanwhile, here in the Rocky Mountains, I can’t remember a winter this warm and dry. La Niña, apparently, has something to do with that. Unless, of course, it doesn’t. Don’t hate me because my heating bill will scarcely be half of last year’s –this winter weather follows on the heels of the coldest summer I’ve ever experienced up here, which followed the coldest winter we’ve had in ages. My fingers didn’t thaw out until June.
So can we please stop pretending we know much at all about the climate? We can barely figure out the weather.
Don’t hate me because my heating bill will scarcely be half of last year’s –this winter weather follows on the heels of the coldest summer I’ve ever experienced up here, which followed the coldest winter we’ve had in ages. My fingers didn’t thaw out until June.
As my dad used to say, “Mother Nature balances it out.”
Chicago is like that.
We just missed the fun here in Baltimore. After a week of “nah, nuthin’ much” from the NWS, we woke up Saturday morning to Cassandra’s being shouted from the rooftops. All of a sudden, the “storm of the century” was barreling down on us and we were supposed to get up to a foot.
Meh. Barely a dusting. Highly disappointing.
And I don’t want to hear about “warm and dry” in the Rockies, Steve. We’re heading out to Aspen for a week of skiing in February. Get to work. I’m expecting mountains of powder!
It’s not just North America and Europe.
But, but, but… weather doesn’t equal climate! Everyone knows that.
Twenty-four globalwarmering degrees in Pensacola this morning and a frozen farmpond to boot. ‘Sposed to be twenty tomorrow. Thank God Ebola’s gonna graduate as an Air Force weatherman in 6 weeks, so I can get the forecast straight from the horse’s mouth now, instead of from all these believers on the TeeVee.
Any more of this global warming and the planet’s going to freeze solid.
I’d rather have global warming than global cooling. What makes anyone think climate stability is an option?
RPD,
Exactly. Climates change. Intelligent creatures learn to adapt to that change, or they become extinct.
About 10,000 or so years ago, humans survived real global warming as the last big ice age came to an end (and not an SUV in sight). If those ancient humans could survive an ice age and its aftermath, we should be able to as well. If we can’t adapt to a climate that has always been changing throughout geologic time then we deserve to go extinct.