Sunday, July 5, 2015

It's feeling apocalyptic around here today ....

We live in southwestern BC, Canada ... a temperate rain forest area ... blessed with large forests of Douglas Fir, Western Cedars, Hemlock and Spruce, fed and sustained by plenty of rain. We see the the occasional snow down below but we always have ski hills full of snow in our beautiful mountains. This year there was hardly any ... our ski hill across the pond which often has record snowfalls had to close half way thru the season due to NO snow! Our rivers, normally fed by melting snow packs into June at least, don't have that extra cushion to see them thru the summer season. I so, so hope this year is an anomaly and not a glimpse into the future. Really, can anyone still be a climate change deny-er? Yes, we can debate the man-made versus natural course of events aspects of it but regardless, it is here and it is more than a little scary.

In an area that normally sees 77 mm (3 in) of precip in May and 68 mm (2.7 in) in June, this year we've only had 12 mm in May and 18 mm in June. The sun has been blazing down for several weeks with no end in sight. We are tinder dry with several forest fires in areas around us. This morning we awoke to this ...



along with ash falling around like a grey snow flurries ...

 ... And this pic of the sun was taken later in the morning .... It's the little orange dot at the top of the photo.  .. It's just plain eerie! I feel like I'm wearing those sunglasses that turn everything yellow!


It is barely July .... we have two and a half months to go before perhaps the Fall season will bring us rain. Not sure what's going to happen with the annual salmon returns (low river, no rain means they won't be able make it up), the forests, the wildlife and our beautiful piece of paradise .... just feeling a little discouraged about it all .... and the mellow yellow sky isn't helping ...



7 comments:

  1. I do hope there are some rains that come your way, we have had two weeks of way too much rain, but had a big heat wave before that. mother nature seems to give feast or famine, I did hear that an El Nino winter is predicted having living in California for so many years I feel sick about the drought in the West

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  2. I know how you feel, Linda. It's all just a bit surreal.

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  3. The West has been short of water for a while has it not?...California in drought for 4 years?.....then the East has just had much colder and longer Winter.
    We've had the jet stream far further South than usual for ages, so neither Winter or Summer has seemed "right".
    The climate is changing, in a normal oscillation,but we're just pushing the pendulum further and faster. We just haven't been listening to what people have been saying for a hundred and fifty years and more....

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    1. I guess we're late to the party, gz. I know about the California drought and the Polar Vortex appearance in eastern Canada and the US the past two winters. I know less about the conditions in your part of the world ... thanks for sharing! Good to talk to you again .. brenda

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  4. I came through a storm today that shook the truck, saw trees under water and corn fields underwater. You bet things are changing and it is scary! I keep putting up food up because I keep thinking I'm going to show up at the grocery store and the green beans won't be there! And then there is that feeling of helplessness. I mean how loud do we need to yell and the politicians just keep funding more crap and bombs instead of that thing called science. Real tangible solutions to help a struggling planet! Makes me flipp'n crazy!

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    1. I hear you Sandy ... especially the helpless part. Today I've started washing dishes in a dishpan so I can re-use the water on the natural native plant species in the front yard. The ferns have keeled over. The trees are drooping ... so sad. Our community water system is fed from our local creek so losing our water source is a real possibility .... like you said .... things are getting scary!

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  5. Hi Brenda.. I hope the weather has improved for you.. The weather has turned here this weekend from hot to cool with rain.. I agree about the weather changes.. Hope all is well otherwise, and that you have been creating in clay over the summer..., and thanks for commenting on my blog.. Trish

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