Current temperature: 27.3 degrees Celsius/81 degrees Fahrenheit
Normal high temperature for April 2 in Waterloo, Ontario: 8 degrees Celsius/46 degrees Fahrenheit
Forecast low tonight: 12 C/54 F
Normal low for April 2 in Waterloo, Ontario: 1 C/34 F
If this was just a one-off, I wouldn't be writing this. Climate is what you expect and weather is what you get, and springtime in the Great Lakes region is notoriously fickle. I've seen measurable snow fall on Easter Sunday; it seems like every year we go from frost to sweat in a matter of days.
But never this early, and never on the heels of anything like the "winter" we just had.
The year 1816 is known as The Year Without A Summer (or, more poetically, "Eighteen Hundred And Froze To Death"). As a result of a series of gigantic volcanic eruptions in previous years--the ejecta of which reflected a good deal of the Sun's energy back into space--the weather that year was decidedly crazy: snow in June, July and August in some locales, wild temperature swings (from 95F to near-freezing over a period of hours), and copious precipitation.
While 2010 won't go down in history as "The Year Without A Winter", I've taken to calling it "Two Thousand And What The Hell Was That?" To recap: the driest January on record; a deceptively average (but dry) February when one prolonged cold snap was balanced by much warmer than normal temperatures; the warmest March in a decade and the driest in six. (All data courtesy the University of Waterloo weather station, a snowball's throw from my house if there was any snow around).
Environment Canada has issued its long-term forecast for the period May through July:
click to enlarge
The top map is a temperature forecast: uniformly above average but for a little blue uninhabited island off Newfoundland (and if it gets too bad, that island won't be uninhabited for long). The bottom map basically just shows they're likely to be correct in their forecast.
The above average temperatures--surprise!--don't scare me. They're likely to annoy the hell out of me if I'm forced to employ an air conditioner as a sleeping aid before it's even calendar summer--but they don't scare me. I'm sure most of my readers think of me as some kind of polar bear, and there's probably some truth to their thinking...but in truth, all I want is normal. Normal temperatures. I might bitch a titch in July when it's 30 degrees out, with a humidex of microwave on high until skin has melted...but I won't carp too much, because that's par for the course in July. In April, though? The beginning of April? My bitchiness is as mercury in a tube.
THIS is what scares me: below average precipitation. Given the abnormally dry winter we've had, there is comparatively little moisture in the ground right now. If this forecast holds up, and the bottom map suggests it will,we're likely to see droughts, meaning higher prices for a wide variety of commodities. We're also apt to see more frequent and larger forest fires (hope you're ready, Dad!) Also lower water levels in the Great Lakes, which create their own problems: depleted wetlands and fisheries, algae blooms, disrupted shipping...the list goes on.
THIS is what scares me: below average precipitation. Given the abnormally dry winter we've had, there is comparatively little moisture in the ground right now. If this forecast holds up, and the bottom map suggests it will,we're likely to see droughts, meaning higher prices for a wide variety of commodities. We're also apt to see more frequent and larger forest fires (hope you're ready, Dad!) Also lower water levels in the Great Lakes, which create their own problems: depleted wetlands and fisheries, algae blooms, disrupted shipping...the list goes on. But hey, it's nice outside today. And in the manner of human beings the world over, who cares about tomorrow?
Well, as I think I've amply demonstrated over the nearly six years of this blog's existence, I ain't human. So you'll forgive me if I don't join in the near-universal hosanna to skin cancer that breaks out every summer and which I've already seen on Facebook. (It never ceases to amaze me that the same teenagers who sensibly shun cigarettes actually encourage skin damage, which is what a suntan is.) You'll perhaps understand if I keep the curtains firmly shut in a (probably vain) attempt to keep the house livable,. And you'll pardon me if I inject a little doom and gloom into your glorious summer-come-early, since Mother Nature doesn't seem to want to do the job.
1 comment:
Yeah, it's odd that people don't realize that they get tan because the skins melanin is reacting with the cancer causing radiation from the sun turning your skin brown/red.
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