Hot town, autumn in the city


Here it is October 3, and we still haven't turned the furnace on. I can't remember when we ever made it all the way to October without breaking down and firing it up at least once. But that slightly cool, slightly wet spell Portland had last week was quite anemic, and it lasted only about a day. We'll be in the upper 70s and low 80s for another week or more, and there is no rain, or even afternoon cloudiness, in sight on the weather app. The central air keeps kicking on.

It's remarkable. We've had plenty of sunny, dry Octobers in my decades here, but this weather is something straight outta San Jose.

Even more remarkable is the way the bright sun is making me feel. In the not-too-distant past, weather like this would make me happy-go-lucky. A bonus week, or even a bonus month, before the rains set in. Good times! Get outside and make the most of it. There might be a nagging moment or two when I'd think, "It had better rain this winter and spring or we'll be mighty short on water this time next year." But that feeling would quickly pass, and it was on to Oktoberfest.

These days, my predominant feeling about the weather is dread. We're in the midst of a global climate catastrophe that is picking up speed. Even some of the right-wing greed mongers are starting to admit there's a problem. The planet is overheating, and the consequences are ever more dire. How will our children and grandchildren live on this earth? This incredibly hot, dry summer is a grim reminder of the impending doom.

And as far as Oktoberfest goes, if it isn't outside, forget it, I don't want the latest variant of you-know-what. And even if it's outside – if it's really crowded, I'd rather not.

I can't even enjoy great weather. No wonder we're all crazy now. And that's without dwelling too long on the politics of it all, which will really send you 'round the bend.

I promise not to complain when the rain gets here. I sure hope it's like the Portland rain I remember and have grown to appreciate. A token of normalcy in a world turned upside down.

Comments

  1. You did have the wettest spring ever didn’t you? Mother Nature owes you a bonus week! Enjoy it.

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    1. Anonymous- you obviously haven't lived in Portland that long. In the 80's it rained for months on end. I remember one year when we had just 6 weeks of summer weather-the last two weeks of August and month of September.

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    2. Doug in Clark CountyOctober 3, 2022 at 12:38 PM

      From what I've read, the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet are the 1,000 + coal-fired electric generation plants that China has built during the past thirty years. There's probably not a good way to convince them to switch to a less harmful technology, but I'd like to see the UN pass a resolution that asks China to cut their coal use by at least half in the next 10 to 15 years. We've got to do something, and China needs to be part of the solution.

      I think we are the point of saturation when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. Now, each additional ton of CO2 and other pollutants is having a bigger warming effect than it would have had in prior years.

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  2. Look up Maurice Strong- a Rockefeller associate from Canada. He started this whole IPCC operation and made sure the only CO2 being tracked was from human industrial output- which is a very small amount compared to natural CO2 production.

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    Replies
    1. Please cite your source. The data shows otherwise. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WG1AR5_TS_FINAL.pdf

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  3. Hmmm...I don't think this autumn is particularly notable in terms of temperature, nor precipitation. As noted, we got a relatively wet spring and early summer, which has served us reasonably well, along with two widely separated light rainfalls, to keep the relative fire dangers down to a minimum. For that I am thankful.

    I've been here more than sixty years, now, and in my memory, many an October started like this. In most cases, though, the winds kick up about mid-month and the rains begin then, or shortly thereafter. When I was a youngster, my father reckoned that the second week of October was the best last chance to get good weather for the deer hunt. That has held pretty well in the intervening sixty years.

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