Extremes

The weather is showing them

The sun rose with spunk this morning over Waikiki as it does more days than not.

I was texting with several folks on the East Coast of the United States who were looking at ever increasing—and unpredicted—amounts of snow. A friend in the western Philadelphia suburbs said it was coming down like crazy, following up later in the evening with a photograph of their longgggg drive way cleared (by shovel, I think). Our daughter in the central Philly teleworked today, to her joy because her cat loves to help with all manner of activities. A relative in Wilmington sent a couple of beautiful video clips evoking an earlier time when it probably didn’t matter that she lives on a diabolical hill. Friends near the Bay Bridge in Annapolis also deemed it beautiful and gentle. Finally, grandkids only had a single average day of school this week between Martin Luther King Day, two snow days (this was the second snow for Maryland in 72 hours so they are in the snow groove), and a two hour delay due to icy roads on Wednesday. Our grandson wanted to get out the sled, of course.

While local forecasts under predicted today’s delivery, the annual forecast had been for more snow than usual this year. I suspect many people reacted as my husband did by saying ‘Right. They tell us that every year’. In Annapolis, a fairly moderate climate, the snowier projection is already proving true only the third week in January.

I am proposing we broaden our interpretation of climate change beyond the heat horror we saw over the past two years in China or across the southern band of the United States during most of the summer of 2023. We should recognize that climate change really translates into far more frequent extreme weather from what we think normal. Climate change=extreme weather Of all types.

Looking at weather phenomena around the world, it strikes me the evidence is strong for profound disruption that is more than just strictly higher temperatures. A mere seven days ago, temperatures across the northern locations of the western hemisphere and Europe were far lower than average. Calgary had actual temperatures usually found in the Arctic Circle region while Stockholm had paralyzing snow and cold. Week before last, Great Britain suffered utterly devastating rain which flooded widely across England while Scotland was frozen in hefty snowdrifts. Oh, and that was the second instance of this extreme weather within a four week period. Bangkok, last week consistently had temperatures in the 90s while fifty years ago this time of the year would have seen at least fifteen degrees cooler.

The commonality is persistent extremes somewhere. Sure, we saw snows like 1978 in Buffalo once in while historically but no across the global regularly as we currently do. We need recalibrate our thinking so we are better prepared for weather forecast that miss the mark. Instead, we whine about erroneous forecasts and get caught flat-footed on preparations for governance, school, and similar activities.

Just a thought when we aren’t as inclined towards the zen of the moment as some of my home bound family and friends this morning. It is tough for those who cannot, for whatever reason, work from home or watch the snow fall. If we recognized that we are in an era of extremes, it might help prepare us mentally to be more agile in life. Agility is one of those incredible resources we take for granted but rarely have in ample supply.

What do you think? Is this really all pretty standard and we are missing the forest for the trees? I would like to hear as it affects the entire globe in one form or another.

Thank you for reading Actions Create Consequences today. I appreciate each piece of feedback and wish you much agility today and every day.

Be well, be agile, and be safe. FIN