Why Spring Arriving in Idaho is Meaningless

I looked out a window at work this week in the direction of Rock Creek Canyon.  I saw light green leaves had sprouted from a tree in the distance.  One of my studio guests commented that we’ll get a good freeze and see a lot of blooms snuffed early.  I’m not so sure.  I’m writing this as spring arrives in a few hours, and the long-range forecast could fit into the first half of June.  Friends back east are telling me they’ve had a good old-fashioned winter.  Not the most severe they’ve ever seen, but there have been some cold and snowy stretches.  They would call it close to the historical mean.

I Didn't Notice Fall Ending

We’ve experienced something entirely different.  I don’t know that you can blame climate change.  Some winters, the jet stream does some unusual things, and high-pressure systems keep the cold bottled up in Canada.

A friend recently moved to Southern California for family reasons.  She called a couple of days ago and mentioned it was hot, but dry, which is more comfortable than the summers she lived in Florida.  When I mentioned I would like to get away to Coeur d’Alene for a week before the summer rush, she said she would like to go along.  I picture sweater weather in the panhandle, at least for the next couple of months, and I recall a July day there a few years ago when I went out for a walk on a day when the temperature only reached 62 degrees.

I Don't Expect a New Trend

I also keep thinking that we’ll pay next winter for what we dodged the last few months.  You live long enough, and you know the experience.