(Had to change the title from 4 to 9. Who knew an Ice Age 4 was actually coming? Did anybody watch 3?)
I never did find my camera cord, so I guess I'll never get those ice storm pictures uploaded. I'm sure I put the cord somewhere that made sense at the time, but only my other personality knows where it is.
I'll go on record as saying this is the strangest winter I can remember. Normally here in Oklahoma we have a couple of little snows a year, with one big, bad winter storm every two or three years. Ice, snow, power outages, the whole shebang. Any accumulation melts within a day or two, at the most a week, and many times I can remember wearing shorts one week and earmuffs the next. We don't have extended periods of deep cold. My pear trees try to bud a couple of times every winter, it can get that warm.
This season we've had a blizzard with record snow totals followed by a cold snap that kept the snow around for weeks, an ice storm with record ice accumulation and another record snowfall on top of that, with a bunch of little snows in between. I'm seriously thinking of investing in a snow shovel. Yesterday I bought a chainsaw so I could cut up all the limbs that fell off the trees, and if it will ever stop snowing I will do that. Lingering snow makes me nervous. I'm used to the landscape looking a certain way, so those few weeks when the snow just stayed gave me a constant, vague feeling of suspicion.
People like to say, "I thought the globe was supposed to be getting warmer, yuk yuk." Well of course if the global average temperature is raised or lowered it will cause weather patterns to shift, and that means different weather, not necessarily warmer all the time. I don't know if global warming is real or not, and frankly, I've stopped caring. I live as simply and consume as little as I can, and that's all I can do.
Not sure I've ever been this ready for spring. Geez.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Yeah, to all those global warming alarmists, go tell the people in frozen Miami the world is getting warmer.
ReplyDeleteThere's a saying, ice happens.
Interesting how oppressive weather conditions can be sometimes, and at other times, how healing; I am affected that way too! As you pointed out, the weather will get more extreme- hotter, colder, drier, wetter. Climate change is the correct phrase, not climate warming. And sad to say, it's true.
ReplyDeleteFWIW:
ReplyDeleteThe sun's solar cycle has been in an extended deep minimum for the past couple of years, which means we have been getting less solar wind and radiation than expected. The sun has just started to be more active again. (Sunspots and flares last week, after TWO years without, halleluia!). This minimum is probably not as bad as the Maunder minimum (which is linked to the Little Ace Age), but it has been called the most severe minimum in modern times.
Might have something to do with both global warming AND this winter's wonky weather.
I wondered if you would jump on that. You've mentioned it before.
ReplyDeleteThe climate is changing, no doubt about it. Hopefully only temporarily, or I may have to move to Texas. These wild temp swings are killing me.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that little factoid, very interesting. Global warming alarmists, as WIGSF calls them below, seem to ignore the possibility that we may be in a natural cycle, seeing as how the earth is billions of years old and we've been observing it for a few thousand. But I have no doubt we humans are impacting the environment negatively. So I guess I'll wait and see, like I do on most things. Can't pick a side, no, not me. lol
ReplyDeleteRachel's hit it dead on: The solar cycle is the cause of most of our planet's warming and cooling trends. There's no documented evidence, despite what the media is saying, for anthropogenic global warming or AGW. In fact, there's so LITTLE evidence for it they had to change the name to account for the global cooling trend for the last, oh, say TEN YEARS. So it's not "global warming" any more, it's "climate change" -- you can call it "CYA" because ... well. I'll stop there.
ReplyDeleteBut don't worry, the vernal equinox is coming, dear! The ice will melt and the sun will shine and the world will be as it should. I promise. ;)
There haven't been any sunspots for like a year and a half, 2 years now, so things are considerably colder in many places. Just part of the ebb and flow of temperatures, no such thing as "man caused global warming." :) So don't feel like you've done something wrong, you haven't.
ReplyDeleteSpring will come and so will summer, and you'll wish it wasn't so hot.
The only good thing about ice storms is that they're so pretty - as long as they're happening to someone else. When it's happening to you it's almost a disaster, because it takes down wires and closes roads and causes accidents - it's terrible!
It's been in the 60s in Houston and that will probably blow your way soon. Hang on just a little longer.
And your cord is in your little writing office that you built. ;)
*hugs you*
Fal and Darc--I have seen data for and against "man-made" climate change, but the data I've seen doesn't convince me one way or the other. I don't feel guilty about it. Going to keep an open mind since I'm not a climatologist.
ReplyDeleteBut get this...More snow on Thursday! WTF???
Hope y'all are doing good! *hugs back*
Things change. The earth will change. Plates will move and one day the sun will begin to expand. Since we don't outside the cycle of life, I assume that we impact the planet for good and for ill, but who is to say what that is? I tend to side with scientists, but really whether it is whatever you want to call--are we doing our best to keep the earth livable for us? Can we ever know that? I mean, we can't know if the earth would be better or worse if we hadn't had the industrial revolution. It isn't like we've got a control earth around to compare ourselves to.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought the earth will have the last laugh anyway. We aren't going to kill nature. We might make nature impossible for us, but it will just keep on doing what it does, growing and changing, indifferent to politics and city planning and which species survive and which don't.
In the meantime, I've got a kid to raise and a book to sell.
Well said.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you. 14" this weekend and we're in the middle of getting another 8"- 10" by Wednesday evening. YEE HAW - Bring it on! The weather guy said that our average February sees just a little over 4" of snowfall. Looks like we're blowing that out of the water this year.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, but our weather has gone like this. Cold, freezing cold, BEYOND freezing cold, OMG it's mother effing cold, oh look - my daffodils are coming up, where did this snow come from, why can't I get out of my driveway, why is everyone swarming the grocery story,etc. Can't wait to see what next week brings!
LOL, that sounds like our weather, only more extreme. At least you have a good attitude about it.
ReplyDeleteWe've had snow since Christmas and I'm ready for some new stuff. I'm tired of looking at the old, worn out snow.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we don't get ice storms here. If you can stand the cold, we really don't get too much hazzardous weather in this area.
That's something I always say about Oklahoma. The cold I can handle. It's that we also have to have constant biting wind, and severe storms.
ReplyDeletewell me to
ReplyDelete