An old saying claimed the weather belonged to the poor, because rich people had more ways to cope with it, like spending the winter in Arizona or Mexico.
The weather has been a topic of much conversation recently because Mother Nature seems to have it in for some of us, rich and poor.
In the far north, unusually warm weather is causing problems, and in Australia, where it’s summertime, record breaking heat is having nasty results.
Eastern Canada and mid-western USA have been hit with ice storms and bone chilling cold, the Philippines were ravaged by a typhoon, and there has been unexpected and unpleasant flooding all over the place. We’ve been lucky. It’s been snowing regularly in the Cariboo but there is nothing unusual nor nasty about that, just business as usual.
This is my 63rd winter in the Cariboo. I don’t know if that qualifies me as an old-timer or not, but winters really are milder now than they used to be. We haven’t had long lasting or viciously cold temperatures for years.
I don’t miss the “30 belows” (we didn’t used to know about wind chill), the older I get the less I like the cold. Mind you, anything above -10 C seems balmy to me as it must be to a lot of people, especially the hardy types you see walking about town wearing shorts. My winter complaints are the blobs of ice lurking on walkways and the snow barriers between the streets to the sidewalks.
Does the world-wide weird weather (and warmer winters in the Cariboo) mean the climate is changing? More people are becoming believers, even government people, but what can we do about it?
Dave Phillips, Canada’s senior climatologist, (40 years with Environment Canada) suggests that nature just might be sending us warnings, and maybe we should be getting ourselves ready to live with changes, just in case.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.