River Valley Rambler - Wacky Weather

It’s the first column of a new year and I vowed I wasn’t going to comment on the weather. But it’s January and as I write this it’s almost 15 degrees outside, the grass is green, my skis are in the corner gathering dust, everyone is talking about the weather and I can’t help myself. Now I know by the time you read this we may be buried under 50 cm of snow, although I doubt that very much. Winter has completely disappeared and although I don’t like that, I know many people are celebrating. But today at least as I write this, the balmy weather is what people are talking about, so I am too.

Let me start by saying it’s not supposed to be like this. It’s a Saturday afternoon in early January and it’s pouring rain. I should be in the backcountry skiing right now. Instead I’m listening to a Toronto radio station on the internet and hearing stories about roses blooming and Blue Mountain, the largest ski resort in Ontario laying off 1,300 people and shutting down for the first time in its 65 year history. There’s also a news report of a massive avalanche in Colorado that covered a highway, burying cars and sending some vehicles plummeting down the mountain. Also today I spoke to one of my son’s friends who is working at a ski resort in BC and he said he’s never seen so much snow. It started snowing there in October and hasn’t stopped. What gives?

Earlier today I was using my ham radio and spoke to a station in Louisiana. The operator said it was 50 degrees outside and raining. It was warmer here. I made contacts with other amateur radio operators in places like Ireland and Ohio and they were all talking about the weather too. The fellow in Cleveland told me he lives in what is normally a snow belt but this year the golf courses are still open. He works in the business of making environmental controls for industry and he said he doesn’t believe this is all a result of global warming. He said climate change is cyclical and there’s something else at work here. I don’t know what to think anymore. I’m sure man made greenhouse gasses are responsible for most of the climate change we’re experiencing but there could be more to it. I know a few hundred years ago, long before cars and smokestacks, the river Thames in England froze solid for a number of winters. And we know that palm trees used to be found in what is now the arctic. Whatever the cause, something is going on.

Here at home, Poley Mountain ski area is closed today. It’s managed to make enough snow to open some runs but this rain is hurting. Snowmobiles have largely been silent so far this winter and that’s hurting businesses that depend on the provinces ‘White Gold’ winter tourism campaign. Some people are so disgusted by the weather they’ve put their snow machines up for sale at bargain prices.
It’s not just the winter sports enthusiasts who find this difficult. The thousands of woods workers in the province who make a living by cutting down trees and hauling logs are mostly out of work now because of the warm and wet winter. They need frozen ground to haul out the wood. The mud is making many logging roads impassable.

It’s now two days later. I stopped writing when I heard the forecast of a major winter storm approaching us. I didn’t really get my hopes up but I thought I’d better wait and see what the storm brought. Old man winter huffed and puffed and tried to blow in some snow and cold but failed. Early in the morning we picked up maybe 5 cm of wet snow but it quickly turned to heavy rain and that was the end of it. I’m hoping other areas of the province got some snow and held onto it but I think this rain is widespread. It’s pouring out again right now. Maybe it’s time to give up on winter.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what life would be like here without a winter as we’ve known it. Imagine a temperature that only rarely dropped below freezing? Aside from the disappearance of snow it would drastically change everything we’ve known and expected. Some of that change may be good. But I know a lot of it won’t be, even for people who generally dislike the winter.

I still think we’re going to get a good dumping of snow. We’ll probably be buried come March. Even so the backbone of the season has already been broken. And I’m afraid winter may never be the same again.