We Canadians love talking about the weather, more than anyone else on the globe, mainly because it's always doing something to us; causing us to be late for work, cancelling trips, making us bring a change of clothes to work, ruin gardens by either being too hot or cold or too dry or wet. You have to plan ahead when you live in Canada and pay attention to the weather forecast as your life may depend upon it, it is very serious business! Just this week a local news story showed us some unfortunate guy who drove into the mountains, had car trouble and didn't realize there is no cell phone coverage in the mountains! Stranding him for a dangerously long time. Sorry, but what an idiot, the temperatures are already dangerously low and snow was in the forecast, if you can be bothered to flip on a television, and, honestly darling we don't live in California, if stranded you can easily die at -20 if not prepared. Weather in this part of the world is not to be taken lightly.
Everybody seems to have very strange and unscientific opinions on the weather and climate and of course Climate Change. I saw some clips of people on our National News where people actually thought it would be an early spring because of the Groundhog Day predictions, that's nuts!!! It's a cute tradition based in New England from a time period a little after putting women on trial for Witchcraft and before satellite imagery of the Earth. Where I live there will be six weeks of winter regardless, it has no bearing on reality.
I love (to hate) the Conservative pundits I see and hear everywhere that say, well it was cold where I live or it snowed in Texas so Climate Change isn't happening. These people do not know the difference between weather and climate nor have a world view on the topic. Yes there are always extremes but one must look at the bigger picture, Climate Change is not relative to your small geographic area.
So, what's with the weather this winter!?!? Well, my friends there is a lot to know, many variables not suited to Sarah Palin sized soundbytes. It is a very complicated system that most people don't have the time to understand or care about. I think this provides enough wiggle room for the oil industry and Conservatives to fill peoples minds with doubt and ridiculous statements that scientists are lying about Global Warming, they are taking advantage of mass ignorance.
I will try to explain some of the things you need to know about weather, I am no meteorologist but have taken this up as a hobby for some time, I need to know if I should try growing tomatoes or not this year! One of the main things this year is the presence of the tropical Pacific phenomenon called La Nina. It is a cooling of Pacific waters off the coast of South America and has a huge effect on winter weather in North America, especially the West, where I live. It also causes heavy rains in Australia, please see UTube for graphic footage. La Nina is the cold one and El Nino is the warm one, it makes for warm weather in Western Canada but causes plenty of trouble elsewhere on the globe. Then there's the Arctic Oscillation, the Antarctic has it's own oscillation too. What you need to know is, it has two cycles, positive and negative, positive pushes cold air over Labrador and Greenland , negative pushes cold air west over the middle of North America, which is what we are experiencing in Calgary where it's been in the -20's C for days! What you never hear about this winter is how warm it has been in Canada's Eastern Arctic, Labrador and Greenland. It has been so warm that the Arctic Ice Pack is at 50% of historical norms. So what does that mean to me? Well, it's quite serious as it seems to be affecting weather for all of us in the temperate zones in ways nobody understands, because it's never happened in our scientific records. It would seem that it is making the rest of North America very snowy and very cold this year. Here is a great graphic of temperature anomalies that illustrates how warm the Arctic has been this year compared to how cold (compared to normal) for most of the Continent.http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=48882 This has been bad news for Polar Bears in the Hudson Bay and also caused, seals, who normally have their babies on ice floes, to have them on the beaches of Sable Island this year. It sucks for them and it sucks for us who have to deal with temperatures 20 degrees below normal! Yes, La Nina is responsible for some of the cold weather and is a natural event, however, open ocean in the Arctic is not normal and could be causing unprecedented events.
Have a look at this temperature anomaly map for January 2011http://processtrends.com/images/RClimate_GISS_temp_anom_map.png This is exactly what scientists predicted would happen with Global Warming, a significantly warming Arctic. It produces what has been called "The Open Refrigerator", it's like if you open your fridge you will feel the cool air rush out and cool the rest of the room while the fridge gets warmer. I often remark, Global Warming does not mean the Earth will heat up like a toaster oven, it's not as simple as that. The Earth is always trying to seek a balance, I think it's making weather more extreme.
I have talked to people from almost everywhere, from the tropics to the Arctic, and you know what they all have in common? They always say, the weather is changing, it's not like it was. Let's take the summer of last year for example, 2010. While my region was statistically average, it only worked out that way because one day a week was extremely hot while the next few were extremely stormy and cool, the pattern did not change until fall. There were several funnel clouds (the precursor to tornadoes) in my City and to the Northwest of here in the foothills. Ask any meteorologist how rare it is to have tornadoes in any foothill area and they will likely tell you it's pretty rare. They mostly form on open plains, over trailer parks, kidding! When I was growing up I saw a funnel cloud once, it was a big deal locally, nobody ever worried about tornadoes in this area. That's one example. As an avid gardener I notice weather and wait and wait to plant outside in this climate. The last few years we have also had unprecedented cold spring weather, it was so cold in June 2009 the local news interviewed me when I worked at a Calgary greenhouse about what people should do with their plants? Mmmmm, don't plant yet darlings! Last spring was also cold and late, summer was a disaster too, is this the face of Global Warming? I think it may be for my region, unfortunately.
There is more, of course, to the world and my little corner of it and whether or not I can grow pretty plants in defiance of my latitude and proximity to the Rocky Mountains. Growing seasons are also for growing food, oh yeah, I forgot, I was too busy watching Lady Gaga pop out of an egg to worry about where food comes from! Consider that 2010 was the warmest year on Earth, tied with 2005. Remember the heat wave in Russia last year? It has been reported that 15,000 people died from it and it also caused Russia to lose 15 Billion $ in GDP as well as halt grain exports from Russia. There is also a continuing drought in China's main grain growing region. Does this have something to do with escalating food prices that have also led in part to revolutions in the Middle East recently? You bet it does! Weather is more than an inconvenience, it affects all of humanity mainly because our food is grown in it. We may feel immune to it North America but I sometimes wonder for how long, can any of our societies survive a major interruption in food supply, History says no, have a look at Classical Mayan society. A small change in weather patterns caused drought in the Yucatan, thus, no corn to eat and the whole culture went to hell in a hand basket pretty fast! It happened to many societies, the Anastasi, Easter Island, the City of Ur. Humanity is more fragile than you might think.
As for now, I can't wait for this cycle of La Nina to end, it's always one extreme or the other around here, myself I would settle for normal and I believe I've been saying this for the last two decades!
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