How’s Your Weather ?
The calendar says it’s Spring , but Winter is still hanging on here in Washington State. On April 11th, we had one day of eighty degrees. The next day, it was barely above fifty and more rain. We’ve even had Spring snow, twice this month. No, not just a dusting, but inches. Most nights still drop down into the 30’s, and most days have been lucky to see 50 degrees.
Yes it’s true we have always been criticized for our weather here, but it’s usually pretty mild and comfortable. I haven’t seen too many people breaking out their shorts and sandals yet, not here. We haven’t put away our winter clothes yet, or gotten our gardens planted for the most part. It will be no doubt be a short growing season. The recent snow we had has potentially damaged our apple, cherry, pear, and asparagus crops that are grown in Eastern Washington. This Winter has brought record snow to our mountains. Two of our ski resorts are still open and it’s almost May. That’s always great news for the skiers, but if we get what we call the Pineapple Express, (warm air current from Hawaii) like we did in December, we will see more record flooding.
It is rare that our weather here makes national news. Most recently, it was our snow that made headlines. In December, it was the worst flooding Washington has seen in the last 100 years. Most areas had 3-5 inches of snow on the ground. The Pineapple Express came through and dumped seventeen inches of rain non-stop in less than twenty-four hours. There are some areas in our state that are still recovering, and locally just last month several road repairs were completed.
It’s not just our weather that is strange though. Over the weekend the Pasadena area had temperatures of 100 degrees and the first wildfire of the season. A couple of months earlier than usual. Today, there were terrible twisters in Virginia. It seems there are few states that haven’t experienced a natural disaster or weather phenomenon, in the last five years. Perhaps Mother Nature is sending us a wake-up call to take better care of our planet. Let’s hope there is still time to change our ways and turn back time. We should have paid more attention thirty years ago to warnings of what could happen. Now our planet is in crisis and Mother Nature is fighting back.