Weird Weather - 2008

2008 has been an unusual weather year, in Utah, yet we have seen little or no press concering this unusual pattern. But I'm a old gardener...I notice this stuff. I've grown a garden every year for about 40 years. I've seen it all...but this year was definitely different. Spring was the first sign that something was different. My peonies have always bloomed before Memorial Day. Peonies were once the flower of choice, with which to decorate graves. This year they did not bloom in time...they were at least two weeks late...maybe more. It was strange. It was different.

Did anyone else notice? Well, someone did. There was a brief reference on the news about this being a late spring...actually, the latest Spring on record, in Utah. I thought that was a big deal. Where was the press? The reality of this unique weather pattern was also made obvious in our apple orchard. We traditionally harvest at least 200 bushels. This year we picked three bushels..that's right...three. That is the lowest output ever. Some apple trees take a rest every few years, and sometimes a late frost damages blossoms...but this was different. It was weird.

Then I began to hear complaints from other gardeners about their tomato plants...they were not thriving. I had about 80 tomato plants, of all varieties...they seemed to be OK. Slowly it dawned on me that the larger varieties were not ripening. Each year I look forward to giving away literally buckets of tomatoes to neighbors. This year we did not give away a single tomato. To compound the problem, there was an early frost and I lost the entire crop. I tilled in a ton of green tomatoes. No big deal, but where's the press? Where is Global Warming when we need it? Bring it on!

Then there was early snow in Utah this Fall. How early? It was interesting to learn that the earliest recorded snowfall in Utah occurred in September, 1965...the month that I arrived in Utah from Australia. 2008 challenged that record. The Salt Lake Ski Areas had their earliest opening in years. Good for them, but where's the press...the same press which has predicted the demise of the Utah ski industry, due to Global Warming? This is a weird weather year. It certainly calls into question the concept of Global Warming.

People have been religiously preaching the dire effects of Global Warming since before 1980. If their wild predictions had come true, I think we would have noticed a few cities being underwater. You would think they might give old gardeners a little credit for a few intelligent observations. Like...since 1965...there has been no significant climate change in Utah...cycles maybe...but no evidence of gradual warming. This year may be different, but it is not warmer....Spring was not earlier...Fall was not later. It was pretty close to 1965 conditions. We hear repeated warnings from experts, that even 1 degree C increase in global temperature will have devastating global consequences... the poles will melt...oceans will rise...polar bears will drown...growing seasons will change. Of course, old gardeners might suggest that longer growing seasons might actually bless a lot of people?

The evidence is clear, that the climate has not changed here in Logan, Utah in 40 years. And I was in Australia last year, where weather data has been manipulated to "prove" that the average temperature has risen alarmingly by 1.5 degree C, in the past 100 years. Yet I was born there 68 years ago...and need I point out the obvious?..nothing has changed...not the rainfall...not the spring wild-flowers...not the ocean level...not the weather pattern. So who is fooling whom? When will the press begin to acknowledge the obvious truth? We've all been had! We continue to be had by enviromentalists and politicians, who apparently grow neither apples nor tomatoes.

Postscript: "Great Salt Lake shrinking looks to be at an end."
12 November 2008: Herald Journal

Why is the shrinking coming to an end? If Global Warming is an indisputable fact, surely the Great Salt Lake should have shrunk to its lowest level in modern history. The press blames "warm summer temperatures" for the shrinking and "cooler fall temperatures" for the correction. Brilliant observations!

"All summer and into the fall, warm temperatures kept evaporation humming, drawing down the lake to near near-record lows and exposing more shore than normal...the current lake level is 4,194 feet...the lake hasn't been this low since the 1970s. Some speculate it might slip past the record low of 4,191.35 set in 1963. But cooler temperatures this fall are finally bringing the shrinking to a stop...the lake has a reputation for having cyclical fluctuations, rising and falling at the whims of temperature, rainfall and other factors."

No kidding! But where is the indisputable evidence of Global Warming? Apparently the Utah climate in the 1960s, was almost the same as it was in 2008... late spring...early snows...low lake level. One does not need to be a Rocket Scientist to know that Global Warming is a myth! One only needs to be an old gardener.