Falling Back, 4. Time to Take Cover

A low pressure area just off the Iberian peninsula to the west came closer today, acting more like a tropical depression, and actually trying to form into one. Yellow warnings are out for rain this afternoon and evening, possibly reaching 15 liters per square meter in one hour.

Until the clouds started getting thicker this afternoon, it was actually a hazy, warm, and dry day. The barn cats were lazing out in the garden, wrapped up in round balls, sleeping on the grass. Then, the day got darker, and, as the storms started approaching from the south, thunder start to rumble softly. One low growl of thunder, louder than the rest, startled the cats. They got up, and looked out to the hills behind the house. One of the young cats born this spring came running in from the garden, her tail a bottle brush, and created her own lightning bolt as she streaked to the barn. 

It's understandable. The young cats born this spring have never heard thunder. For some reason, we haven't had any thunderstorms this summer. They were more common in the interior. The summer weather has to be special for us to get thunder. These storms are much more common in the winter, here. 

When a cold front moves in from the Atlantic, or a low pressure system appears on our doorstep, the colder mass of air from behind the front, coming from the cold North Atlantic, rises over the warm air coming from the southwest, ahead of the front, and that is when conditions are right to hear rumbles. And that type of weather is more common from fall to early spring.

This year, the hurricane season is going strong. There's this low center that wants to become a tropical depression, there are six or seven different depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes lined up in the Atlantic. Now, there's a medicane in the Mediterranean between Greece and Italy that is setting up to become the strongest storm yet to develop in the area. If it had been out in the Atlantic, it would have been baptized as a hurricane. It even has a name, Ianos.

Yes, climate change is real, and it's been going on for a hundred years, at least, though it's been in the last twenty or thirty years when it's begun picking up steam and speed. For those who think differently, I would ask them to consider clothing fashion. A typical outfit for a woman in summer now is shorts and a tank top. That is worlds different from what a woman would wear a hundred years ago. Back then, skirts still reached the ankles, though a few daredevils were beginning to shorten their skirts to their knees. Hats and gloves were the norm for ladies, as were silk stockings. Men wore long sleeved shirts, a stiff collar, a waistcoat, and a jacket. And long pants. There were some summer days where collars were loosened, and jacket and waistcoat taken off, and perhaps women would eschew gloves, but not often. Imagine wearing those clothes this past summer, every day, everywhere. How long before heat stroke would have hit? And there was no air conditioning then, either. Still think the climate hasn't changed?

There have always been punishing storms, more than anything for lack of forecasting. But what used to be a once in a hundred year happening, is now becoming a more common occurence. And that is not good. It used to be rare that a tropical storm forms to our southwest and hits us. Now, it seems to be happening at least once every year. That means the sea temperature is warmer than it should be. 

There is a web site called earth nullschool. In it, you can follow different atmospheric and oceanic events, such as sea waves, currents, and temperatures, including sea surface temperature anomalies. If you follow that link, you will see that the entire Atlantic Ocean, both north and south, has temperatures that are warmer than normal, except for very few colder spots. The black are normal temperatures. Just off the west coast of Africa, the temperatures are about five degrees warmer than usual. That is not normal.

I fear for the future.

Life continues.