Friends who live in on Vancouver Island in Canada tell me they just had a major blizzard, this in an area that supposedly “never gets snow.” Their power and phones were out for a couple of days, and more snow is coming. Yikes.
So, since they know Sue and I are moving to Connecticut, they ask, are you sure you want to move back into such weather?
Well, yes. New Englanders have lots of experience dealing with snow, plus temperatures never get to 119 in Connecticut, and traffic jams there are minor compared to the never-ending L.A. gridlock. Besides, as my dad, a life-long New Englander recently commented when I asked what winter is like there now, “It hardly ever gets below zero any more.”
Since winters are warmer there now, temperatures hover around freezing when there’s a storm. This means snow turns to rain, back to snow, causing ice to form on power lines, which then snap.
Seattle just had snow too, as well as record-breaking deluges of rain this month.
Climate change, anyone? Because, with global warming happening, some areas will indeed get warmer but others will get colder.
Interesting how the world’s climate seems to be changing, yet Bush and co don’t see it as a real issue.
Here in Australia, we have had some freakish weather the past couple of weeks. The southern parts of Victoria had snowfalls in early November — unheard of! Parts of southern Queensland, at the same time as Victoria, also received snow, and in some places it was a first ever. At the same time the entire country is sweltering and struggling under the worst drought on record. My hometown of Toowoomba (Queensland) is likely to run out of water by April 2007 — unheard of, and serious — a city of 100000 without water??