March 28, 2024
Columns

Weather or not

Bear with me on this one, but it will make sense eventually.

Last July, I went to the LaSalle and Marshall-Putnam County 4-H Fairs. It was hot. Very hot. I think I lost 15 pounds that month.

(I readily admit. There are people who perspire. I'm not one of them. There are people who sweat. I'm not one of them, either. I precipitate. If I shake my head during the summer and you're within 15 feet of me, you *will* get wet. I apologize.)

This past winter, it was cold. Very cold. One of the coldest winters on record according to the National Weather Service. I know I'm not telling you something you don't know, but I'm closing in on the point.

April 2013 was wet. It's been called a millennial rain, and some towns are still trying to rectify problems the flooding caused.

On July 15 during the midday, it was 61 degrees. Someone on Faux News called it a polar vortex, but it still was cold enough the smokers in the office were wearing coats while they alleviated their next nicotine fit.

You can't really call it global warming or global cooling. Even if you don't believe in such things, you do have to admit if nothing else, the weather is getting extrem-er. It's a made-up word, but it fits.

We may not be breaking records daily, but we're approaching records which were set over the course of decades and often within the same year.

Last July, temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 90s. The record high is 112, set back in 1954. July 15, 2014, the low temperature was 57. The lowest ever was 48 degrees set in 1975.

Is this fluky? Possibly, but for the last several years, weather seems to have been high or low with few in-betweens. One of the worst droughts in the summer was followed by a millennial rain in the spring. Two years ago, we had an incredibly mild winter, but last year more than made up for that.

Is it pollution and man's tampering that is melting the polar icecaps, or is this part of a cycle that's been continuing since before recorded history? There's ample evidence for both.

All I know is if this keeps up, the man who invents a cream to rejuvenate skin from frostbite with an SPF of 75 is going to be one rich son-of-a-gun.

Ken Schroeder can be reached at kschroeder@putnamcountyrecord.com.

Ken Schroeder can be reached at news@tonicanews.com.