I'm Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving

Yes that's a lighthearted pun on a traditional Christmas song. Over the past two weeks we've had a sudden turn of weather from mild to downright cold with frequent localized flurries. It is not an extraordinary circumstance but certainly unusual enough for that wry comment in the title. Over the past decade we've not, as a rule, had any snow prior to December, and frequently not until after Christmas. Something tells me we will have a cold winter this season. I may be wrong, but some news stories related to astronomy and solar observations that I've come across recently hint that the sun is radiating less energy than what it has in the recent past. So much so, the the average global temperatures dropped half a degree Centigrade or a little more than a degree Fahrenheit. That does not sound like a lot, but according to some reports I've come across, we are back down to the average temperatures of the 1930's.

The sun's variability has a far greater apparent effect on the earth's climate than our mass release of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases into the atmosphere. Perhaps we're being humbled a bit by Nature and her Creator (real, hypothetical, imaginary or otherwise). The best we can do is adapt as well as we can to our circumstances, persevere when fate isn't kind and be thankful when it is. Speaking of adapting, I should probably make the house a bit more weather-tight and snug for this winter and insulate where appropriate.