Lately, climate change has been happening in my hometown of Salinas California, located just inland of the Pacific Ocean on the California Central Coast.
I’ve lived here my whole life, and the weather and the climate have changed in recent years, and yes I know the difference between weather and climate.
There have always been droughts here during most of my life. My father told me before he died that in the 1940s and 1950s, we rarely had droughts here and every year there was a lot of rain. This is not been the case in decades, and we see several years of drought followed by a year or two of rain, during which all the local politicians proclaim he end of the drought and there will never again be another minimal-rain year and OK lots of new building permits ignoring where the water to support them will ultimately come from.
It used to be that about every third year or so we’d get snows on some of the local peaks, short hills that barely get to 3000 feet. The snow might come in late December to mid-January, and be gone in two or three days. This year there has been snow several times, even currently in mid-February, and it lasts for several days rather than there and gone almost before one knows it ‘s there.
What has inspired me to write this post is the recent strong winds here.
For most of my life, there have been a few windy days each year, but not more than one to four very windy days and then it’s pretty much regular low winds of not more than 25 mph or so. However, in the past few years, the winds have been coming faster and harder. Two years ago, for example, during a night when wind speeds were up to 50 MPH, all three of my fences blew down, which resulted, among other things, in my baby dog Delight getting with the boy dog next door and giving me four puppies who are now my children.Â
Lately, there have been several times of strong winds rather than the one or two days that usually happens here each year. Last night, I heard on the news that the local winds were up to 60 mph, and more high winds are expected today. In my entire life, I have never before heard of wind speeds of 60 mph in Salinas. This morning as I was getting ready for work, today as a substitute teacher in a seventh grade English Class, I let my puppies out to do their doggie business. As I got dressed, I noticed it was quiet as the dogs had not come back inside so when I got dressed, I went into the back yard and called for them, but they did not come. I walked around to the gate and found it had blown open, breaking the latch, and the gate was wide open and no dogs to be seen!!!
In a panic, I ran to the gate, and two of the pups, Fenris and Brunhilda, ran back inside the gate. I pushed the gate closed and ran out into the front yard and saw Dorcas and Zorrita running through a yard across the street. I called to them and Dorcas came like a shot across the street, narrowly missing being run over, followed by her sister.Â
I tried to pick them up, but they were avoiding me, so I went back to the gate and opened it and they went back in. I closed the gate and put a pile of bricks against it and hoped it would be enough to keep it closed.
I locked the puppers in the house because the winds were so strong I was afraid that the fences might come down again, so I’ll probably have some poo to clean up, along with some chewed up stuff, when I get home. If one or more fences come down again, I’ll have to deal with that when I get home.
I now think their mama, Delight, may have gotten out during an early windy day when the gate blew open, she went out, and the gate blew shut behind her.Â
So climate change is happening and it’s effects are being felt here. I wonder what the future will bring. I’ve been speculating that it’s only a matter time before a hurricane hits Southern California. Can you imagine what San Diego & Los Angeles would be like after a Category 1 or 2 hurricane comes ashore there?
#jtg