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.