Wetter and Wilder

Hi Carolyn,

Hopefully you are almost finished with academia for a bit and have tamed all of those unruly marks and evaluations that come with the end of the year.  It always seemed to me that once you got past spring  break things just began to hurtle along and before one knew it the year was over.




The weather has finally made it a comfortable experience to be outside so the winter clean-up is almost completed here. Speaking of climate issues ( which I seem to be doing a fair amount of lately ) My LSBH and I had a chance to attend a presentation/discussion at a local church. It was organized by a local climate awareness group and centered around a presentation by John Anderson, a retired marine biologist and fisheries scientist. In the five years since he retired to this area he has been researching historic weather data back to the late 1800's  from Owen Sound and the Bruce Peninsula area and identified some significant local climate trends.







Mr. Anderson's research career was spent in St. John's Newfoundland as a research scientist with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and as an adjunct professor at Memorial University in that same province. The man has the credentials, to be sure, and was clearly quite passionate about the topic. The two plus hours  for this event just seemed to fly by as the topic was so thoroughly engrossing.






He has been able to  compare what is happening locally to what is happening globally over the same time period. Anderson said that his research has shown that since 1926, when a dry spell ended, the region has experienced steadily increasing precipitation levels.

" 2013," he noted, "was the wettest year in 135 years. It is quite a notable event."

Anderson said there are also signs that extreme events are on the increase in the region and this past winter when there were long stretches of record cold temperatures is an example of such extremes. These conditions are definitely signs of significant climate change.




There were many other intriguing parcels of information relating to the changing weather patterns in the area and beyond. I had more than a couple of my hunches confirmed, I must say.



I should also note that my own recollections of the contents of the presentation have been augmented by contents of  an article in The Owen Sound Sun Times written by Staffer Rob Gowan. That steel vault I used to have for a memory has begun to lose its holding power, I fear.



Okay, back to other stuff. My last riddle was a zipper, Carolyn. I am going to guess that the last one of your is a pedestrian crosswalk. It seems far-fetched, perhaps, but its the best guess I can offer.



I have to also confess to being in a dry spell of my own vis-a-vis riddles today. I do not have one to offer up. Next time, I assure you, the jar will not be so empty.

Catch ya later,

Don


All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 -  www.salvomag.com
Fig. 2 - en.wikipedia.org
Fig. 3 - www.noaa.gov