All Hail!

Day 184: So far, April has offered up almost every possible scenario with respect to precipitation and temperature, going from 80 degrees one day to six inches of snow 72 hours later. It also gives me the opportunity to recite my favourite bit of weather doggerel.

Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.

Never in almost 50 years of record-keeping have I logged seven consecutive days of snow on the ground in April. A flurry is not uncommon, but an accumulation of half a foot is not. 80-degree days are unusual, but not unheard of, but they have never come tightly bookended by snow. I have tried to explain to people how it is that this occurs, that hotter summers drive more moisture into the atmosphere and hold it there until cooler temperatures arrive, but sadly, many people cannot differentiate between "weather" and "climate," and despite having bought an air conditioner to provide some respite from triple digits in June, when a heavy snowfall occurs, they say, "Look, winters are getting snowier. What's all this silly foofaraw about global warming?" A week, a month, a year does not paint the whole picture. It takes decades to observe what is truly going on.