Weather or Not, Here it Comes

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Way, way back in the mid-1980s, I visited southern California for the first time. First during winter break, to meet Ross’s father, then to spend time with Ross during his summer internship at a Crystal City law firm, and later for New Year’s at his dad’s place in Laguna Niguel. Ross would be graduating from law school in less than six months, and the firm had tendered him a position as an associate. 

We weren’t engaged - not yet - but we were at the point in our relationship where neither of us would make a serious life decision without consulting the other. So as we leaned on the rail of his father’s balcony, watching the fireworks reflect in the Pacific Ocean, we talked about the job offer. “I love it here,” I said, “but the weather never, ever changes. What do people even talk about?”

Well. It was 35 years ago.

In the summer of 2021, the Pacific northwest is on its second life-threatening heat wave, caused by a once-rare, now increasingly common “heat dome.” In the eastern seaboard, we’re just drying out from the torrential record-breaking rain of Tropical Storm Elsa. We got six inches at my place, and there was water leaking through my 200-year-old stone foundation, a very unusual occurrence (fortunately, I have a true New England celler, with a dirt floor that absorbs almost everything.)

Meanwhile, Jenn has been living under an extreme heat warning for the past several days. The weather is nice in northern California where Rhys is, but twice in the past four years, her community has been threatened by wildfires and choking smoke. 

The climate is changing - it already has changed, and one of the signal markers of “the new normal” is the increase in extreme weather events. As this graphic from Climate Central shows, the change in the average day-to-day weather isn’t very noticeable - but the shift to a warmer planet gives a big boost to the extreme edge of the spectrum. 

 

Out west, it means killer heat and drought. In the east, it’s moisture-drenched storms and polar vortexes. For all of us, it means (among many other things) learning to cope with “once in a century” weather coming once every ten or five or three years.

Reds, what’s the extreme weather event you worry about most where you live? And what do you do to prepare for and get through it?

LUCY BURDETTE: It’s hurricanes for us of course, both in Key West and Connecticut. Both of our beloved places were in the path of the recent Elsa--and this isn’t the first time it’s happened. After two wicked hurricanes hit CT in 2010 and 2011 (Irene and Sandy), we finally invested in a generator. Because after the storm passes through, there can be a long stretch of time without electricity, and that means ruined food and reading by candlelight and hot, muggy nights. We also worry about fires--so scary--on the west coast, and tornadoes in the middle.

I just said to John the other night, doesn’t it seem like a few people have warned us about climate change for decades, and now suddenly it’s devastating the world? It’s pretty darn discouraging…

HALLIE EPHRON: Climate change is truly scary. I have a friend who’s house hunting in this brutal sellers’ market, and the first thing she looks at is “flood factor” - not something I would have even considered when we bought our house. It eliminates a lot of otherwise perfectly acceptable properties.

Here in New England, blizzards are atop my worry list. The cold, mountains of snow, power outages. It’s nice to live in a house but it has its down side.

JENN McKINLAY: Aside from being broiled alive by the summer sun, I fear running out of water. It’s my biggest worry, because AZ has no water restriction measures set in place at all. With the 26 year drought happening, and six of our counties on the brink of being declared uninhabitable, they’re just talking about maybe restricting the water in the year 2022. We’ll see. This is a state that has 299 days of sun per year and won’t mandate that all buildings be solar. They say we’ll be out of water by 2050. Sort of feels like something we should prepare for, you know?

DEBS: Jenn, that is crazy!!!! We’ve had water restrictions here for years, and they don’t lift them even when there is lots of rain and full reservoirs. 

RHYS BOWEN: I also worry about running out of water. Marin is a small county and we rely on our own reservoirs which this year are in danger of doing up. I can’t understand why we don’t have desalinization plants!  But we always live with the threat of wildfires, power outages, poor air quality. Otherwise it’s perfect!

 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Before this year I’d have said our biggest fear was tornadoes and blistering summer heat. Then in February, we had SNOWMAGGEDON! We are just not prepared for that extreme cold, and obviously our power grid was not, either. That week caused terrible damage in Texas. People FROZE to death in their homes! And agriculture took a huge hit. Our favorite peach orchard, for instance, lost one third of their trees, and all their early crop peaches. You would think people would get their head out of their--I mean out of the sand!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Power outages. We have blizzards, true endless relentless blizzards (once we could not even open our back door because the snow was so high.). And massive thunderstorms. I plug in everything, obsessively.  And this year, for the first time, we had a brown-out because of the intense heat. And last year, the Boston downtown streets flooded! The harbor overflowed and cars were floating. I know the weather here has gotten--weirder. I mean--look at all of our experiences. Debs! I read about that, and it is so disturbing. Terrifying. And yes, Lucy. Real and imminent. 

 

JULIA: How about you, dear readers? What are the weather emergencies you worry about? And how do you prepare to meet them? 

Giving Up to Get a Lot

Red Hot News! Rhys' Above the Bay of Angels is #1 in Historical mystery and several other categories on Amazon and has sold 25,000 copies in the first 10 days— not counting Audible!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Friends, it's happened again. My week and Ash Wednesday coincide once more, and, as your resident observant deist, I'm going to talk about it. In past years, I've pointed out the near-universal practice of fasting, shared my painful sacrifice of sweets, and we've discussed the day just past: Shrove Tuesday, a/k/a Pancake Day, a/k/a Mardi Gras (the consensus was none of us wanted to go to New Orleans for Carnival, but we all liked powdered-sugar pancakes and beignets.)





In some ways, February and March are ideal for revisiting some of the good resolutions and self-denial we were all  super charged up about on January 1st. We've all had the chance to fall off the wagon - did you really stick with the intermittent fasting? How are you doing with being nicer to your in-laws? A little wiser, a little more sober, we can take a look at the disciplines we'd like to integrate into our lives and take another crack at it.

Another reason? What else are you going to do to get through what's arguably the dreariest time of the year? Yes, okay, those of you in Arizona and Southern California are enjoying the weather God intended for the Garden of Eden. But, as Debs recently pointed out, for most of the rest of us, February, March and early April are one long, wet, chilly, slushy slog to Spring. What better time to gird your loins and Do Something Meaningful?






Do I have a suggestion for something meaningful? Readers, you know I do. The past two years, my church has asked us to consider abstaining from - or at least cutting down on - our habits that harm our local environments and our climate-challenge world. What does that look like? Let me share something written for our church newsletter by our own Celia Wakefield:

To observe "a season of penitence and fasting", takes some discipline. This discipline received new wheels last year as we were asked to cut back on single use items in our lives. Refusing straws, trying not to use one off containers for drinks etc.(Though I haven’t yet worked out how to enjoy a milk shake without that big paper beaker.) Carrying a small towel to class for hand washing, or a cloth napkin if it was lunch out on the run.

In addition, I worked on some other ways where I could do better. I carried reused plastic bags to the supermarket, or didn’t use a bag at all. Does one head of broccoli really need a bag? I bought fabric bags for veggie storage and to use when shopping. I made sure there were always shopping bags in the car. I also tried to cut down on paper products in day to day use. Instead of automatically reaching for paper towels, I stocked in more fabric dishtowels for spills. Washing my hands when out finds them drying on my butt more often than not! (So far no dread illness or reaction from that choice.) Even just shaking them after washing finds they are dry within a minute. 

 

What can we do to build on this this Lent? Save Water. Americans use on average 88 gallons of water daily. Colgate toothpaste prints on their wrapper that running water while brushing used 4 or more gallons. We read that dishwashers clean perfectly well when plates are not rinsed, and that saves water. This is from the EPA site - According to a 2014 Government Accountability Report, 40 out of 50 state water managers expect water shortages under average conditions in some portion of their states over the next decade. Well, not in Maine! In Maine we have the best water evah! But there are many more states facing scarcity.

Over the forty days I encourage you to think about your use of water. Please email --- with thoughts, saving ideas, your own water plan. We will share, expanding our ideas for the planet. 

So, Reds and Dear Readers, here's a challenge for you to get you through the next forty days until blissful spring - what changes can you make in your life to help the environment?