Think Locally and Act Globally - Weather and Climate

THINK LOCALLY  

We all have our own weather fascinations, predictions and interpretations of our local western weather.  Weather is local, individual, personal.  Climate is global, it is all connected, something we share.  If whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting then weather is for talking.  I was babbling urbanely with an old, quiet rural rancher one day on a field trip and eventually asked him if it was going to rain that day.  He looked at me quizzically and then at the clouds and sky for a moment, paused for an eternity and eventually said gruffly, "somewhere".  "Only fools and newcomers try to predict the weather, which one are you?"

Lincoln Highway, Snyderville Meadow, Back of the Wasatch Front, 1940, WPA

Regionally, Colorado, Utah and Nevada are at the north end of the Colorado Plateau and when it is not snowing we get cool sunny days.  Utah tends to get light and fluffy desert powder that is 5-10% water, sometimes on a great day - 3% snow, that is 97% air.  This is a high desert but we still get a lot of winter.  Utah has the Great Salt Lake affect, Colorado is much higher so it gets more wind and more precipitation and Nevada is in the dry Basin Range complex in the shadow of the Sierra.  Its all different, its all good.

North are Idaho, Montana and Wyoming that are more of a closed continental climate, far from the coast, with cloudy days and super cold temperatures and snow.  South are Arizona and New Mexico that can be low and hot or high and cooler but are mostly desert-sunny with great light.  To the west are the damp coastal climates of Washington and Oregon, the Cascade mountain concrete 15-25% density snows and the dry eastern rain shadow.  California has all climates, from the desert coastal beaches of LA to the Mojave Diamond desert, from the cool and clammy north coast wine country to the dry east slope of the Sierra and finally from the fertile breadbasket of the Central Valley to the Sierra Nevada massif, warm and wet with 10-20% Sierra cement snow.    If you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes or move 10 miles.

My older Colorado brother recently won a weather bet with me about April being Denver's second biggest snow month in Colorado but in Salt Lake City, April is Salt Lake City's biggest precipitation month but only its fifth biggest snow month.  Maybe since SLC is 1000 feet lower than Denver and is typically that much warmer (3.5 degrees per 1000 feet normal adiabatic rate) we see more rain in SLC.  

In Park City we now see rain in every month, sometimes up to 10,000 feet in January. It is anecdotal and it is analytical.  High temperatures often flirt with records but our low temperatures barely reach average levels and almost never brush with the record low.  Correlation does not guarantee causation but even a blind man knows when the sun is shining.

Park City proper is usually 5-10 degrees colder than SLC and the Snyderville sink is usually 5-10 degrees colder than PC.   Since PC is 3000 and 2000 feet higher than SLC and Denver respectively and is the backside of the Wasatch Front in the snow shadow of Alta-Bird, our local weather is obviously all about elevation and atmosphere. You don't need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.

Denver can tap into that Gulf of Mexico warmth and moisture flowing from the east while SLC only gets it from the west coast, from Alaska on the Siberian express and Hawaii on the Pineapple express. Frontal storm energy comes across the Nevada desert, then gets supercharged by the warm Great Salt Lake affect that flows directly to the SE on the storm winds, to the uplifted Cottonwood canyons, like natures own snow-making machine.  Denver gets 60 inches while Salt Lake gets 50 inches of snow a year, Alta  - 10 miles away gets 600, PC mountain gets 400 and we get 200 inches at my house.  Location, location, location.

ACT GLOBALLY 

The global climate creates my local weather.  Go figure, it's weather, its climate, its changing faster than ever, and it is our fault.  I follow the weather closely for my recreation and the climate for my work as a hydrologist.  I see it, I feel it, I study it, I live it, every day, for 40 years, since it all started really changing in 1980's.  It is the event of my career and it is the issue of our generation.  If you don't think the climate is changing, you need to get out more.

Weather and Climate have both changed in my lifetime, measurably and dramatically and it causes me pain.  What is normal anymore, what is average?   What can we do to stabilize our climate again?  We are getting more extreme events, more heat and less precipitation in the west that evaporates quicker and therefore we require more water to survive and thrive. Less supply, more demand, something has to give.  A compounding effect that feeds on itself, with inflection points when things get bad. 

Winter is 2-3 weeks shorter and not as sweet anymore.  We still get 1-2 feet storms but seldom see those 3-4 foot storms anymore.  It rains during every month now (up to 10000 feet and that is new over the last 5-10 years).  At least in years to come when the west is 120 degrees, Park City will be a bearable 99 with no skiing and a lot of brown but our homes will be worth millions because it will be livable, compared to the rest of the country.

We can ignore climate change for a few more years, like we ignored this inconvenient virus for months.  We can kick the can down the road for the next generation to solve, like we do with national debt and other economic, epidemic and environmental issues, and let the kids solve it or suffer.  But is it already too late for an elegant, easy solution? We missed that when Bush stole Florida at the turn of the millennium and we handed the country over to Halliburton for 8 years instead of facing the inconvenient truth with Al Gore. 

It will be the our kids, the poor people and minorities who will suffer most. Old, rich, white guys like me will do just fine and be gone before it gets real bad.  There are more than a million species facing extinction now, and we could possibly be one of them.  Mother earth will be so happy when we are gone, like an empty-nester parent, and she will laugh and smile and heal in a few thousand years.  Unless we adopt an honest macro-economic, comprehensive world viewpoint that doesn’t privatize only gains and socialize only risk and losses. A Triple Bottom Line focus beyond the GDP is needed that considers profit, people and the planet, equally.  It is the issue of our generation, one that we will be remembered for; our gross negligence of what is wrong while ignoring what should be done, and doing nothing.  As young Greta says….’Shame on you”. 

So we have to try, individually and collectively.  Unfortunately, the ‘Tragedy of the Commons' will kick in and we won’t change or sacrifice unless everyone else does.  Or the USA won't change unless China and India do.  Mostly we have to have good leaders and selfless alliances that will coordinate all our global efforts and make the tough decisions and changes that need to be made.  Just like we should do with Corna 19.  Our unwritten Social Contract with each other has to kick in when we think of doing things for the common good and not just for ourselves.  This virus and climate crisis has reminded us that Mother Nature gets the final at bat, she carries a big stick, and she is pissed.

It is always raining somewhere but with enough intestinal fortitude, we don't all have to get wet.   We have to stop burning stuff, like oil, coal and the Amazon.  We have to change our agriculture, stop growing rice and cotton in the desert or alfalfa at 8000 feet for cows.  We have to cure our consumption addictions, as well as our bad transportation, heating and energy habits.  We have to take care of the earth, the oceans and the atmosphere.  It is a big 'ask' but I think that with proper leadership and political backbone, this great country can still figure out this virus and our climate crisis for the world and even make money doing it, because that is the American way.  It is not to late.  I'm no fool or newcomer but I still think we can change the world by changing the weather and climate.  

Skiing Football Weekends

I’m resting today.  I don’t do Weekends.  As a retired dowager once said, or maybe it was the Queen of England, ‘ what’s a weekend’.   Skiing is too crazy and crowded on the weekend now and we just can’t bear it.  Our relative perspective remembers how it was, when our Saturday Morning Confusion ski groups singularity was the isolated and empty norm as the tourists typically turned over their vacations on Saturday.  Sunday was a Church day for most of the local brethren and the resorts were empty, until noon at least.

We had a nice sunny powder day on the old Park West Mountain Friday with the old boys and it was classic. Except there were more people talking on phones than smoking joints waiting for the first lift to open. And it’s almost legal now Smoking pot that is.   Times have changed.   Talking on the phone used to be frowned upon too, as an intrusion on the ‘be in the moment’ ski vibe but it is almost cool now, as long as they keep it short and out of my face.  Don’t harsh my mellow, dude. 

But the resorts are off limit on Saturdays now, so today I read and write, do laundry, thaw out the hot tub again, and then go swimming or play pickle ball, work a little and watch some Football. The football thing is weird.  Last week’s billion dollar pro playoff games were decided on a bad no-call in OT and a targeting of the QB’s head early in the game. It’s all about the Quarterback and the Referees.  It all comes down to injuries and intimidation, penalties and turnovers, commercials and time outs. 

In between standing around a lot they do incredible violent and athletic things that eventually don’t count for much. I like to think that every play counted, like every move is a fake or a setup for the next, but its really just random.  Perhaps it is controlled by higher powers-that-be who refuse to let the billion dollar results depend on some highly athletic college dropouts.  These players are our gladiators, playing in the forum for our entertainment.  In ten years they will all be poor and drooling out of both sides of their mouths. Yet still we watch.  We can’t look away.

The Super Bowl was fun, with the reigning league darling and MVP having a bad game (playing nervous, afraid, hurt or concussed) but eventually winning the game and the MVP with class and courage.  We forget that the fear of getting hurt or the anxiety of high expectations can be an issue in these big games but so is experience and courage.  

The commercials were OK, with the best being about the Wicked Smart car that parks itself, but the halftime gyno show was a little much and confusing in the age of #metoo woman equality and respect.  The best part was watching the game with old friends and yelling at the TV together, eating and drinking and just being merry Americans.  Monday was just around the corner and we could not wait for our return to off-peak skiing normalcy.

Evalation

  

She pauses for me at the bottom of the beach stairs, sitting patiently, waiting for me to come and throw the Frisbee with her.  We start slow as the morning fog burns off, tossing it lazily in the deep sand, getting our sea legs.  She chases it accurately and jumps high at the last minute to intercept it at its apex, styling in the air and glancing for approval and adulation on the way down.  

As we warm up we toss it longer, farther, faster.   The deep sand makes her tired but she does not care.  Almost daily someone walks by and says something like, "that dog has skills."  Indeed.

Then we move towards the water, dipping our toes at first in the shore break and then going deeper into the surf until we are diving into the waves for the catch and the landing, until we are completely submerged and acclimated to the cold water.  Now it is easy to dive into the surf and swim out to the breakers, catching incrementally larger waves from the various starting zones, until we are up to our necks and facing a wall of water every 11 seconds.  I might put on a wet-suit or grab a boogie board for extended action, but not necessarily, that stuff sometimes gets in the way.

She is always effortlessly ready, always prepared, always perfectly naturally equipped for she is a little, one-year-old cattle dog named Eva, in the prime of her physicality and peak of her short life.  Thirty one pounds of Frisbee catching machine.  She is a mountain snow-dog but has discovered the beach and after two week she owns it.  Besides Frisbee she will sniff every passing dog - assessing asses and attitude for fighting or frolic, greet every passerby with a wet nose to the calf, chase the birds – always unsuccessfully , dig holes – always aimlessly, walk on your blanket and shake near you while you nap. 

She wakes me each day at first light, to feed her and let her out, but what she really wants is to go to the beach.   She waits while I go thru my morning routine but if I hesitate or take too long, she is insistent.  If I leave her to go do some other human activity maintenance chore, she is mortified and will sulk the day away until we can play. 

This is her life now, in the little no-name surf town on the Central Coast of California that she has adopted as her own. Before and after I go golfing, ride bikes or motorcycles, go wine tasting or out for food and entertainment, she takes me for a walk.  Supposedly non-self-aware she does know that the world revolves around her.  I am just a tool, a necessary appendage with an opposeable thumb with a perfect 5 high 100 foot long Frisbee throw that she thrives on.  There are no bad catches, only bad throws.