-12 and Loving It!

The last three days, it's been cold.  Not the cold most people in this country usually think of; something in the mid-20's with a few snow showers.  Nope, we're in Minnesota's winter tableau, our annual jaunt into sub-zero air temperatures, a sensation so cold we look forward to high single digits above zero (a warming trend!).  Only this year, like most years lately, there's a problem.

It's mid January.  We should be beginning our two to three week stay in the arctic cold, sucked down from the north by the Great Lakes and the jet stream.  We get three days, for now.  Next weekend, we're supposed to be above freezing.  I know people think anyone complaining about a warm up is silly, but it really isn't normal, and we shouldn't blindly act as if it's a blessing.

Climate change is real, and it's currently happening at a disgusting rate.  We had monsoon like rains in Minneapolis on December 24th.  We didn't have snow on the ground until the 26th, and now we have inconsistent weather patterns, where instead of having a 10 day cold spell to make us dream of Spring, we're having early March like days with a few reminders of normal cold sprinkled in; a hollow shell of winter's normal self, a brief reminder of where we should be.  Oh, and we also had a hurricane form in the Atlantic in January.    That's really weird.

The world's weather has, and will continue to, change dramatically in the time from my father to the time of my son.  My dad, born in 1929, remembers winter being so cold, Snowy Owls were nesting on the University of Minnesota Campus every year, and only fools would venture outside between Christmas and Valentine's Day.  In recent years, since I moved back home in 2000, there have only been two Snowy Owl sightings in the Twin Cities, and we've seen January's with little or no snow and above freezing temperatures.  My son, born in 2001, will likely see the first winter without snow in Minneapolis/St. Paul, metro area lakes with open water though winter, and true cold temperatures of 10 degrees or below restricted to north of the Canadian border.

I know people will say, "but Matt, it still gets cold."  Yes it does, but not nearly as cold, for not nearly as long.  That's a dramatic change.  "But Matt, it still snows."  Yes it does, and with these weird weather patterns, we've seen winters with snow piled as high as stop signs, followed by years with very little snow at all.  That's also a dramatic change.   "But Matt, you must love really cold weather!"  No, I don't.  I hurts me as much as it hurts anyone else, but I acknowledge I moved to a city which gives me all four seasons, including a cold winter.  It's not 'pro-cold' to say we should have normal weather.  "But Matt, what are you complaining about?  Why are you against a little nicer weather?"  I'm not, but this isn't a little nicer weather.  It's the new normal, it's showing no signs of slowing down, and it's not Minnesota.  If you really like warmer weather, please move someplace warmer.  Stop acting like changing the weather patterns of the planet is some sort of 'WIN!'

I could mention the other weird things going on in the state (torrential rain patterns for six weeks, follow by severe drought for three months, migrating animals which are either showing up in the state for the first time ever, or are moving out of the state permanently, birch trees, which used to grow in Iowa, not surviving the metro area's summer heat, plants blooming three to four weeks too early, die offs in certain species) but I know this undeniable evidence will be gleefully ignored.  Too many people maintain the foolishness: 'why worry about the world crumbling around us when we might be able to get a tan?'