As Summer slips into Fall, I’m glad I live in a part of the world that has distinct seasons.
I once lived in southern California, and near the coast it was kind of a two-season place: dry and wet.
But it was a HUGE improvement over my previous experience growing up in Iowa, smack dab in the middle of the Midwest. There were DEFINITELY FOUR seasons in Iowa and two of them -- Spring and Fall -- were pretty nice but much too short.
The KILLER seasons there were Summer and Winter. Summer because of the boiling heat and God-awful humidity, and Winter because of the freezing cold and the God-Awful Wind-Chill Factor.
The what?
The Wind-Chill Factor, which was the additional perceived coldness caused by how hard the wind was blowing that day. So a 20-degree day -- combined with a certain wind speed -- could feel like 10 below.
Ah yes, memories…
It’s funny how -- if you grow up in a place with awful weather -- you’re not really aware of it because it’s kind of all you know. But when you’ve been to -- and lived in -- other places, it suddenly dawns on you how truly awful it is.
OK -- Don’t get me wrong: I DO love Iowa because it’s my spiritual home, the place I was born, grew up and became a man with my own family. And I have many friends and relatives still living there.
But Iowa’s often-rotten weather was a key factor that sent me packing out of the state in the early 1980s, finally landing in the mountains of Colorado.
Colorado is a place I had visited several times before moving here. And when I figured out California was too far away from everything I knew and loved, I -- in consultation with my sweet wife -- decided The Mile High State would be our new home.
Colorado -- like Iowa -- has four distinct seasons. But global warming/climate change has been having an unmistakable effect on Colorado’s seasons, especially in the last five years or so.
When my family and I first arrived here, Summers were delightful. Nearly every day was sunny and relatively cool, often with a short, refreshing afternoon rain followed by a clear, cool evening.
But that kind of Summer perfection has become a thing of the past in recent years.
And it's not just Colorado experiencing unwelcome seasonal changes. Everything west of the Original Thirteen Colonies has been getting drier and hotter, while the Colonies have been getting wetter with bigger, more destructive storms.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that climate change has arrived in my little corner of the world, with Colorado seeing record-setting high temperatures during the last several Summers.
And with less snow and rain over the Winters and the rest of the year, the resulting ongoing droughts in Colorado and throughout the West are causing growing concern.
I’ve always enjoyed the seasons and the changes they bring that keep Life interesting.
I just hope and pray it doesn’t get too interesting...
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