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| Weather Window |
Even if we're just walking out the door, simply looking out the window to check the weather doesn't give us the bigger picture. Living in the present is a wonderful thing, but so is preparing for the future.
I recently came very close to reserving a hotel and bus pass based on a forecast for snow in Yosemite Valley, only to learn that the forecast was actually for the high country. Both forecasts look at first glance to be for the same location, but only by looking at the map coordinates can you tell where they actually are. I've been waiting since fall for a cold storm to bring snow to Yosemite Valley, and I'm starting to wonder whether the weather's going to happen this year.
Coincidentally, I just finished reading a book called The Last Winter, by Porter Fox. As you can imagine by the title, it's not a book to raise hopes for a good outcome to our changing climate. I was especially interested in the fact that permafrost isn't just something found on the North American tundra. In Europe, whole ski resorts are dependent on it.
"Glaciers insulate permafrost," writes Fox, "essentially keeping the top of a ski resort and all the lift stations, restaurants, glass-sided hotels, and panoramic viewing stations in place. When the permafrost thaws everything could come tumbling down."
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| Web cam screenshot of the Yosemite High Country this morning. This is the kind of snow I was hoping to experience in the Valley. |
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| This was the Valley this morning. It looks nice and cold, but it's not cold enough for snow to accumulate and stick. |
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| When we got back from Mendocino, we found that the neighborhood cat that adopted us was in such obvious misery that we took her to the vet. Turns out she has stage three kidney disease, but we have nursed her back to a semblance of good health. Always an outdoor cat, she has been staying indoors almost exclusively, although she recently went out to bask in the sun's warmth while lying in a bed of a neighbor's Oxalis. She came back inside almost as soon as her spot fell back into shade. |
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