Day 72: Happy Christmas Eve/Christmas to my readers in various time zones around the world and from top to bottom! My power is back on now after a brief outage this morning when I suspect a branch laden with wet snow shorted out a transformer somewhere. Better now than in a few days when our nighttime temperatures may fall into the single digits (speaking in Fahrenheit degrees, mind you). Yes, the Pacific Northwest is due for a cold snap, the likes of which we haven't seen in decades, dangerously cold when a mere six months ago, we experienced a dangerous heat wave. Trying to explain how this is a symptom of global warming/climate change to someone who doesn't comprehend the difference between "weather" and "climate" is not an easy task, but anyone should be able to understand that when the planet warms up, more moisture is driven into the atmosphere just like steam rises from a pan of water as it is brought to a boil. Then, as seasonal weather cycles into its cooler periods, the moisture falls back to earth as rain or snow. Hot summers are not necessarily followed by wet, cold winters (that's "weather"), but in the long term (decades or centuries), a correllation can be shown (that's "climate"). That aside, it is a white Christmas Eve here today with even more snow in the forecast for Christmas Day and beyond. As long as my lights stay on, I'll be able to enjoy it from the comfort of my living room.
No comments:
Post a Comment