The weather around here
08/01/16 05:19
I can remember, from when I was growing up, the old guys who hung out at the barber shop talking about the big blizzards and severe winters of long ago. The town where I grew up wasn’t exactly noted for its mild weather. On the east slope of the Rockies, we were prone to a lot of wind and when you combine that with cold temperatures, you didn’t need a lot of snow to make things pretty miserable. We delivered newspapers and were expected to go out without assistance from our parents down to about -20f. I’ve delivered papers when it was as cold as -30, but we often got a bit of help from our parents when it was that cold. At -30, any exposed skin will hurt within a few minutes and frostbite sets in quickly. We had knit face masks with only small holes for the eyes, nose and mouth that worked pretty well, but with my glasses, it was always a challenge to see with such a covering. My glasses would ice up pretty quickly as the fog from my nose drifted toward the lenses. We were told that at -40, the newspapers would not arrive and we would not have to deliver, but I don’t remember that ever happening. I do remember learning that -40 is the same in fahrenheit as it is in celsius, a bit of trivia that isn’t often useful.
So when the forecast calls for cold weather around here, I don’t worry much. In the time I’ve lived in the hills, we haven’t seen many days when the temperature stayed below zero for a whole day and when it did happen, it wasn’t -30. I think it got down to the -20 range once or twice, but the cold didn’t last. People are talking about “intense cold” settling in over the weekend, but the forecast is for a high around 10 above on Sunday with a low of -2. I think we can endure those temperatures without much problem.
The real issue is that the years have passed and I have become an old man from the perspective of many people. And I remember days when it was much colder than it seems to be these days. I really don’t want to become one of those old guys at the barber shop who sounds like he is exaggerating every story he tells. I certainly don’t want to become one of those people who is constantly living in the past.
In the present we seem to be well equipped for the cold temperatures. Modern cars have fuel injection and electronic ignition that makes them much easier to start than was the case in the days of carburetors and fuel systems that were prone to ice if there was any moisture in the system. Our cars don’t even have heaters that plug into an external outlet. We can rely on them to start after a day outside at work without fail. We do have a heater on our pickup and a hour or so of being plugged in makes for an easy start no matter how cold it gets. Our homes are better insulated than was the case years ago. We don’t get ice on the inside of our windows and our heating systems operate smoothly with a simple adjustment of a thermostat.
Not all of our neighbors, however, have it so easy. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve visited one family whose home doesn’t have electricity and is heated by firewood. Fortunately we were able to deliver a pickup load of firewood to help with their heating. I also visited with another family who had a window broken out of their car on our end of the state and had to drive to the other end of the state with the broken window. I tried to get them help with getting the window fixed, but they chose to make the trip with only plastic covering the space. I did convince them to take an extra blanket with them on the trip. It reminded me of a trip we took from Chicago to Montana in the winter in a car with a heater that didn’t produce enough to keep us warm or to keep the ice of the inside of the windshield. I did, however, refrain from telling the story. As I’ve said, I don't want to become one of those old men who is only living in the past.
The bottom line is that we are blessed to be living in a place with excellent living conditions. I read of the wildfires in Western Australia, the mudslides in California, the floods in Missouri, and a host of other weather extremes experienced in other parts of the world and it feels pretty good to live in a place that is so comfortable as our home. 2015 brought above average temperatures and above average precipitation to our home and the result was a very comfortable year.
The predictions of dire consequences of global climate change are hard to take in when the everyday experience of living in our home is so comfortable. It is easy to say that we probably wouldn’t notice a couple of degrees of temperature change. Of course, I’ve read about the larger impacts of increased desertification, decreased food production and other consequences of those changes and I don’t mean to be ignorant. It just seems to me that using the enlightened self interest argument probably isn’t going to motivate people to make the changes that are necessary to live more responsibly.
So I pay attention to the weather. I notice when it is particularly cold or particularly warm. I feel very fortunate to live where I do. I try to be responsible in my living, not consuming more than is necessary and being aware of the needs of my neighbors. But I also don’t turn on my television set to the weather channel for their nonstop diet of weather disaster.
I’m old fashioned enough to prefer to check the weather by going for a walk.
So when the forecast calls for cold weather around here, I don’t worry much. In the time I’ve lived in the hills, we haven’t seen many days when the temperature stayed below zero for a whole day and when it did happen, it wasn’t -30. I think it got down to the -20 range once or twice, but the cold didn’t last. People are talking about “intense cold” settling in over the weekend, but the forecast is for a high around 10 above on Sunday with a low of -2. I think we can endure those temperatures without much problem.
The real issue is that the years have passed and I have become an old man from the perspective of many people. And I remember days when it was much colder than it seems to be these days. I really don’t want to become one of those old guys at the barber shop who sounds like he is exaggerating every story he tells. I certainly don’t want to become one of those people who is constantly living in the past.
In the present we seem to be well equipped for the cold temperatures. Modern cars have fuel injection and electronic ignition that makes them much easier to start than was the case in the days of carburetors and fuel systems that were prone to ice if there was any moisture in the system. Our cars don’t even have heaters that plug into an external outlet. We can rely on them to start after a day outside at work without fail. We do have a heater on our pickup and a hour or so of being plugged in makes for an easy start no matter how cold it gets. Our homes are better insulated than was the case years ago. We don’t get ice on the inside of our windows and our heating systems operate smoothly with a simple adjustment of a thermostat.
Not all of our neighbors, however, have it so easy. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve visited one family whose home doesn’t have electricity and is heated by firewood. Fortunately we were able to deliver a pickup load of firewood to help with their heating. I also visited with another family who had a window broken out of their car on our end of the state and had to drive to the other end of the state with the broken window. I tried to get them help with getting the window fixed, but they chose to make the trip with only plastic covering the space. I did convince them to take an extra blanket with them on the trip. It reminded me of a trip we took from Chicago to Montana in the winter in a car with a heater that didn’t produce enough to keep us warm or to keep the ice of the inside of the windshield. I did, however, refrain from telling the story. As I’ve said, I don't want to become one of those old men who is only living in the past.
The bottom line is that we are blessed to be living in a place with excellent living conditions. I read of the wildfires in Western Australia, the mudslides in California, the floods in Missouri, and a host of other weather extremes experienced in other parts of the world and it feels pretty good to live in a place that is so comfortable as our home. 2015 brought above average temperatures and above average precipitation to our home and the result was a very comfortable year.
The predictions of dire consequences of global climate change are hard to take in when the everyday experience of living in our home is so comfortable. It is easy to say that we probably wouldn’t notice a couple of degrees of temperature change. Of course, I’ve read about the larger impacts of increased desertification, decreased food production and other consequences of those changes and I don’t mean to be ignorant. It just seems to me that using the enlightened self interest argument probably isn’t going to motivate people to make the changes that are necessary to live more responsibly.
So I pay attention to the weather. I notice when it is particularly cold or particularly warm. I feel very fortunate to live where I do. I try to be responsible in my living, not consuming more than is necessary and being aware of the needs of my neighbors. But I also don’t turn on my television set to the weather channel for their nonstop diet of weather disaster.
I’m old fashioned enough to prefer to check the weather by going for a walk.