Rex Trulove
I wrote a short time ago about how our weather has been finally normal instead of colder than normal. With our wacky weather in Montana, I should have known better.
For well over a week, our temperatures had risen to daytime highs of around 80 F and one day, it even topped 90. That is actually very close to normal for Montana. For years, our weather has been substantially cooler than normal, to the point where people started getting used to the long, cold spring.
Starting a couple of weeks ago, our temperatures warmed up to the 60’s and low 70’s. People started talking about an ‘unusually early and warm spring”. It was neither. It was the average temperatures for Montana during this time of year. People have simply forgotten what ‘normal’ is.
I see this played out in various other areas in the country, too. It isn’t a heat wave, it is a return to average weather for a change.
However, the weather can be quite changeable. Yesterday, it reached 83 F. That is well off the mark for hot temperatures for early June in Montana. Last night, though, a rainstorm moved in. It rained hard for most of the night and it is still raining. That has cooled off the temperatures. Right now, it is in the low 50’s. If the clouds don’t break, and there is no sign that they will, I suspect that it won’t get above 60 today.
That is a big turnaround from yesterday and it is cooler than normal for early June here, but it is actually a welcome respite from the heat. Many of my garden plants have already been planted and the flowers at the church are in, so this will be helpful for the plants. It won’t be enough to actually water them, but it will help to keep the ground from drying out fast.
This storm is expected to drop rain for the next three days, which should keep temperatures down. I fully expect to hear people complaining about the cold, though it really isn’t cold, and the rain, though it is so helpful. People tend to love complaining about things they can’t change, though there is really no point in doing so. They were complaining about the heat yesterday. There is just no pleasing people. I include myself in that, as I sometimes catch myself complaining about things that are totally out of my hands. That is even Biblical and there are many stories in the bible about people complaining about things they couldn’t change, but which God could and did change.
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Question of
Do you catch yourself complaining about the weather?
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Yes
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No
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I do it very often
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Question of
Have you looked recently to see what the average weather is for your location?
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Yes
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No
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I rely on memory of what it has been in the past
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It seems that they have learned in automation that they are constantly angry at something
At the time most.
There were a little more rains in our country than it is usual, so people constantly regret on time.
And meteorologists say it’s a long-standing average.
So you see.
That is a common problem. Lots of people don’t seem to understand the difference between weather and climate. They don’t realize that climate is the average of weather over a very long time, usually a century or more. The weather this year will just be a blip in the climate, once it is all averaged, and it probably won’t change much of anything.
Back in Latvia our weather was always wacky. We never seemed to have a normal season. Several years back it was one of the wettest and coldest summers on record and even though our apple trees were full of fruit we wondered if they would ever become ripe. Sometime toward the end of July we woke up in the morning and I kid you not, there were little white caps of slushy snow on the apples and I was grumbling and singing words like and God didn’t make little green apples etc.
I can understand that. Two years ago, we had way above average snowfall and a short summer. Last year, there was above average snowfall, but then we had a very cool and rainy spring, so the state was flooded by late June. It didn’t warm up until July 5. This year is close to average and people are talking about how hot it’s been.
Why weather update some time prove wrong
There are too many variables to accurately predict the weather.
We are up 8 inches of rain for this year, since July 1, 2018 or nearly a year we are up 24 inches of rain above average.
With two snowfalls all winter.
We had just slightly above average snowfall this past winter, but our rainfall is close to average. The snow is melting, so river levels are up, but without the flooding of last year. Last year, we had way above normal snowfall.
gotta love the variability of weather
Given the choice, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Having the same weather day in and day out would get monotonous.
We had record amounts of rain earlier in the year. Now not enough rain. Never an even balance.
Our rain in the three days will most likely amount to the average for here for the month of June. That could mean a return to normal hot weather.