Winter Weather, Or Not?

That Is The Question, Again



One of my bird friends watches me through the leaves, while I take pictures of the flowers and bees. I know it’s the same robin that keeps a watchful eye on my activities. The other robins flee when people get too close, (even when they are high above in the trees). This one usually sticks around when I am near.



This tiny bird stuck around, too. His/her, skittish friends drifted back toward me after awhile, but this brave one got the choice morsels of whatever they were eating.



These happy little birds also seemed accustomed to my presence. I took their pictures from the sidewalk below my apartment as I headed back inside after taking about 150 pictures on an 80 degree Wednesday afternoon.



That’s right, 80 degrees, on the day that I wore a sweatshirt and long pants because winter was supposedly settling in. So, the question remains in the air; “Do we get a winter this year in Redding?”



I guess the answer is, “Maybe”. We are starting to get fall colors in places, and they are very pretty. There is rain and cooler weather still in the forecast. The mountains got a dusting of snow after the last system passed through.



Who knows? Perhaps we will get a day or two of winter this March. It’s a tough call. We have had a series of record breaking warm seasons as one would expect with global temperatures continuing to rise. This also puts more moisture into the atmosphere, so we could get torrential rain storms, blizzards, or drought as a result of shifting jet streams and ocean currents.



One thing that is certain, weather forecasting is getting more unpredictable than ever.

I feel fortunate to be one of the millions of people who live here on the west coast. It may be decades before we start getting extreme storms like Sandy, freak midwest blizzards, Texas sized droughts, or city choking dust storms like Arizona.

I can forecast that I will start each day with gratitude, and a smile. I also can predict that every day, I do whatever I can to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. We might not ever return to the temperate weather that allowed life to flourish on earth, but if we can end our obscene amounts of greenhouse gas emissions soon enough, the planet might remain livable in the years to come. If you want to do something to help, too, you can start HERE.

Today’s Cool Video;




Stormy Weather