Yesterday was a perfect fall day. Today, not so much. In fact, this cold and dreary day feels like a harbinger of winter, and I am so not ready. Luckily, it will warm up a bit the next few days, and with this chill reminder that autumn around here is a relatively short season (at least weather-wise; technically, it’s the same length as any other season), I will make an even greater point of enjoying the coming warmth.
The long-range forecast is for a warmer than usual October and November, but I have lost all belief in current forecasting ability. Not that I had much faith in forecasters to begin with, but at least they used to give a hint of what the day’s weather would be. Now, despite all their advanced tools, the meteorologists seem to get it wrong more often than seems . . . seemly. Of course, that’s probably just the prejudice of hindsight, with me remembering the days when they said it would rain and instead the sun came out but not the days they got it right.
[I had to look up the word “meteorologist” because suddenly it looked wrong, as if it should be a study of meteors rather than weather, but yes, that’s the right spelling. The word comes from Meteorologica, a book about weather and climate change written by Aristotle in 340 BC. He gave the book that name because it dealt with things that fall from the sky, like meteors. And because weather forecasters also deal with things that fall from the sky such as snow and rain and sunshine, they have become known as meteorologists.]
If the professionals have no idea what the long-range forecast will be (and even if they do know), then obviously, all I can do is what I always do — deal with whatever each day brings. And today brought such a chill that I wimped out and turned on the heat.
Luckily, the autumn flowers don’t seem to mind the cold; they are as bright and cheerful as they were yesterday.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One. “Grief: The Inside Story is perfect and that is not hyperbole! It is exactly what folk who are grieving need to read.” –Leesa Healy, RN, GDAS GDAT, Emotional/Mental Health Therapist & Educator.
Bertram's Blog 
October 7, 2022 at 10:59 am
Weather forecasts around here have been surprisingly accurate with their week-after-week predictions of warm sunshine, but right now I would be happy if some rain would fall from the sky! In this normally moderate rainforest corner of southwestern BC we are experiencing a most unusual dry spell with essentially no rain since early July. The meteorologist on this morning’s TV news broadcast announced we’ve moved into Stage Five drought conditions–somewhere we’ve never been before. I normally love fall with its long rays of sunshine and crisp nights, morning dew on the lawns and wisps of fog drifting through the trees, but there’s been none of that so far this fall and it’s unnerving! I suspect it’s all due to climate change. 😦
October 8, 2022 at 8:28 am
I have a hunch that warm sunshine is easier to predict than rain, especially when sporadic rainclouds are moving through an area. What I found interesting about Aristotle’s Meteorologica is that he talked about climate change, which goes along with my theory that climate is change.
Sorry about your drought.