May 8, 2015, Prescott- We had the odd experience here today, of being colder than parts of Canada.  Snow swirled here, outside the classroom window, for about twenty minutes, and stuck on the ground, in the surrounding mountains.  It’s supposed to be twenty degrees warmer by Monday, so the moisture will be useful in staving off wildfires- at least for a month or so.  It was also gratifying to see that the mountains of southern California also got precipitation.

It will be an unusual May, in this regard.  I am quite sure we will see more rain, between now and Memorial Day.  It remains to be seen what this means for our “monsoon” cycle, though I’d be happy to see it be wetter than normal as well.

Weather has been weird, worldwide, and for several years now.  Some blame carbon dioxide, and I’m certain that excess gas emissions of all kinds, from CO2 to methane, don’t help.  There is also the shifting of the Earth’s magnetic poles, which I am convinced is happening, little by little, so that by the time my yet-potential grandchildren are seniors, say, in 2080, they will be in a rather different world.

It seems already happening, though.  Another friend mentioned that the populace of Maldives are fleeing their island homeland, in droves.  People in Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are eyeing property in more spacious, less-threatened places, like Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.  The shifting may be affecting the world’s fault lines, thus adding to the dynamic stress that brings about earthquakes-great and slight.

We are surely in for more excitement than some would like, and can expect feast and famine, precipitation-wise, to alternate, with more volatility than the New York Stock Exchange, over the next half century.  Don’t put away the longjohns, or the summer wear.  Get used to layering; it’s the new normal.