I turned 31 today. Since I left "home" for college, my mother has started her own little tradition: she calls me at "insane o'clock" in the morning to sing "Happy Birthday" and tell the story of how I was born during the Great Blizzard of 1977.
My topic today is a reflection of where we are as a planet. When was the last blizzard you experienced in the Midwest? Instead of snow and cold, winter conditions here in Cincinnati, today will see thunderstorms and a high temperature of 65 degrees.
Sure. There's no such thing as global warming.
I'm not going to flood this post with a bunch of scientific links. Frankly, I don't want to take the time to find them, read them and decide what's real science and what's crackpot stupidity. I'm only going to provide one link, to the history page at Weather Underground. This is where I'm getting my information.
High temperatures, Feb 5, Cincinnati, Ohio, Degrees F
- 63 1998: 32 1988: 26 1978: 29
- 15 1997: 41 1987: 48 1977: 29
- 30 1996: N/A 1986: 64
- 57 1995: 21 1985: 35
- 35 1994: 43 1984: 33
- 30 1993: 56 1983: 31
- 37 1992: 41 1982: 37
- 37 1991: 55 1981: 28
- 36 1990: 48 1980: 32
- 48 1989: 31 1979: 17
What does any of this mean? The devil if I know. All I know is that there have only been three years since 2000 that have been below freezing, and only two in the 1990s. Half of the 1980s were at 32 or below. Is this a trend? Who the heck knows.
All I know is that the ground hasn't frozen here in the midwest yet. New York City got no snow in November or December last winter. This winter, there hasn't been any snow in New York in January. I haven't had to shovel any snow here this winter, as the small amounts we've gotten have melted immediately.
Three Thanksgivings ago, my southern family gathered in Gatlinberg, TN. Up on the mountain, a small, wet snowfall left less than an inch on the deck of the vacation house we rented. My young cousins, having grown up in "The South," gleefully pulled on coats and ran outside to play in the first snow they had ever seen. My own son was unimpressed, having been exposed to deep snowfalls in Pittsburgh.
I'm starting to wonder if my grandkids will react the same way to snowfall when they are children, even if they grow up here in the Midwest. I went sledding as a kid in my backyard; my son hasn't gotten that opportunity yet this winter and I'm starting to wonder if he will.