A Bit of Snow

Just about three or four inches, not much at all.  It started snowing again after I took this but not for long.  I really miss the days when we measured our snow falls in feet, not paltry inches.  Those times were not so long ago; as late as 2008 it was normal to get a storm that would dump a couple of feet of snow, followed a few weeks later by another storm dumping another couple of feet of snow, and so on. 

It's been a bit on the chilly side.  Right now the temperature (Fahrenheit) is 14 degrees, which I believe is 10 Celsius.  Our low tonight is supposed to be 0 but it's very windy, so to the trees and plants (and exposed human skin and anything that isn't covered by fur on animals) it will feel like -27 (-32.77 in Celsius).  Without a deep snow cover I'll probably lose some of my perennial plants.  It's becoming more and more difficult to garden up here, due to climate change bringing such huge temperature swings.  It's always gotten this cold up here, but in the past the plants were insulated by snow.  And the summer temperatures now climb into unheard of heights: It's not uncommon nowadays for it to hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  Ten years ago our highs never got above 80 degrees, and they only reached that for a few days in August.

All that, combined with much, much lower rainfall than in the past, is taking a terrible toll on the forest I live in.  I thought things would get better now that the Pine Bark Beetle invasion, which killed over one million huge, ancient pines, is over, but it doesn't seem to be happening that way. 

I'm not giving up hope, though.  Maybe another Little  Ice Age, like the one which started in the late 1300's and lasted into the19th century, will come along in time to save the planet and reverse global warming.  Of course, that was caused by massive eruptions of tropical volcanos, so that's not really something to hope for. 

Maybe a real miracle will happen and world governments will get together, and work together, to implement actions that would really reverse global warming. 

Sure. 

And maybe the Snow Queen will get in a snit, and return winters to what they should be.