Dealing with the New Normal

On Friday, I was saddened to learn my friend's garden, after an incredible amount of heart felt work, had fell victim to the recent heavy rains.

Today, Sunday the 17th, Teri and I set off for the San Juan Mountains, and a mountain bike adventure in Colorado. We did not get far before the complications set in. Our route via Mellen was now subject to change. The road, due to the last few days of rain, was closed just west of Hurley. We diverted to Highway 2.  Near Kimbal, where the highway crosses the Montreal, a policeman was keeping an eye on the rising river.  The Bad River was high and very brown. If a river is emotional, it was angry. We were apprehensive. But, we felt our luck was changing as we made it to Ashland. We celebrated with a sausage egg muffin. 

“Not so fast”, said Mother Nature. At the Northern Great Lakes Visitor’s Center, the road was breached. A soft spoken, bearded highway employee, with a cup of coffee in hand, informed us that ahead, the road had literally been cut. He patiently gave us directions diverting us again, via Washburn and Cornucopia, to Superior.

While we were diverting my friend in Durango called.  “The San Juan Mountain National Forest” had been closed. The drought in Colorado was just too intense to risk another fire.  The Forest was closed, and the campgrounds were being evacuated. Now, our origin and our destination were suffering the effects of opposite extreme weather.

A couple years ago the University of Wisconsin put on a 4-part series called, “The Changing Great Lakes Weather”.  Climate scientist Steve Ackerman and Meteorologist Margaret Moonie walked us through our four seasons and what to expect as we warm. The main change for summer was an increased chance of heavy rains and strong winds. The course, though excellent, lacked detail.

That started, for me, a quest to understand the dynamics of heavy widespread rainfall. I had a hard time finding detailed information. My girlfriend, unbeknown to me, wrote a nationally famous climate scientist and evangelical Christian at Oklahoma University for help. Katherine Hayhoe wrote her back and soon I had a channel open to our National Climate and Atmospheric Research Center. The work of Kevin Trenberth and Andreas Prein were a source of exhaustive research. Their teams had entered very detailed weather physics into super computers. The computers run non-stop accurately depicting the climate change we can expect.

From there I started to fill in the gaps reading books on weather. Previous errors in judgement as an emergency medical pilot resulted in uneven and unpleasant contests with storms called “white knucklers”. Now, the storms I had learned to respect the hard way, had scientific explanations.

I felt it was time to put my knowledge to work. Thanks to a PowerPoint class I took at GCC, I waded into new digital adventure.

After completing it, I sent it to two professors for Michigan Tech. They kindly reviewed my work and told me it was accurate.

My presentation debut was at NMU. Here, confident in my work, I invited a senior NOAA climate scientist to attend and give his opinion of my work to the students attending. What was his critique of my presentation called, “Deluge”?

“Greyson,” he said, “In regard to just how extreme the weather will be, you have only scratched the surface.”

Is it time to include the effects of climate change in our national, state, local and personal plans? If you are curious, the presentation and my projector can be dusted off. Call 906-285-3702 or e-mail me at climatelynx@earthlink.net to arrange a presentation.

I wrote this in the car en route to Colorado from memory and the immediate experience. At the time I had no idea that our Keweenaw brothers and sisters had been hit so hard. My and Teri’s thoughts and prayers are with you.

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