The weather- more than just polite conversation
Glancing at today’s weather app, this being the fickle month of March, I see that the United States-on radar- appears to be an interesting conversational piece with a late seasonal blizzard crossing the Upper Midwest, and a nasty rain storm headed for the Middle Atlantic. How worried should I be about neighboring trees withstanding the predicted strong afternoon winds?
For that matter, how worried should any of us be? If you live on the East Coast could there be power outages? Will your community in Arkansas or Texas stand tall after a tornado passes? And in the West will you be tuning in for a wildfire update? It seems that no one gets a break.
Indeed, the weather has become serious business! We no longer use it for polite, perhaps even bland dialogue to pass the time with strangers while waiting in line. Climate change has propelled the weather to an exalted status, often appearing on national headlines. You’ve undoubtedly seen it- vital political developments eclipsed by the chance of an unexpected thunderstorm with flash flood warnings.
Even recently, my colleagues and I began a virtual meeting with which topic? You guessed it, a review of recent weather trends and how to dress accordingly. Someone I know very well, who, parenthetically, loves to discuss American history, last month announced the passing of an Alberta Clipper. He said, “I think we are getting an Alberta Clipper this weekend.” I was floored as he dived into the atmospheric mechanics. But, in his defense, this has been a particularly brutal winter in parts of the East Coast- not normally used to such heavy snow.
At the risk of overstating the case, perhaps extreme weather has become an acceptable social bond. After all, we are all in this battle together, and the playing field has been leveled no matter where you happen to live or who you vote for. Regionally speaking, of course, no one really wins. There are pros and cons, risks and benefits of your particular locale, and in the end, weather seems like a truly equalizing process.
Lest I appear callous to the trauma and very real human suffering resulting from extreme weather conditions, my heart goes out to its victims-families, workers, people and their pets, for instance, who cannot get out the door due to obstruction by those stubborn, sky-high snow mounds. A glance on AI shows that in the United States alone, the year 2025 showed an estimated 276 deaths from climate related disasters- Texas floods, Los Angeles fires, and multi-regional tornadoes. Imagine what it would be like to live in a community completely decimated by a tornado.
Since the onset of global warming, we cannot overlook the possibility of having been collectively sensitized to a heightened state of weather alert. Witness the impact on your own life of false positives that sometimes emanate from dire storm forecasts. Maybe your plans need to be changed, trips canceled and the work day re-routed, in the end all for naught when it turns out that a single snow flake is trickling down from the sky… Where did that blizzard go? And, you have to just love the off-the-coast European model-such optimism!