Let it snow

This morning, from my deck.

We woke up this morning to snow in Seattle. Only the second time this winter that snow has stuck on the ground, and here we are, nearing mid-February.  We got only about two inches, and even that's now melting in above-freezing temperatures.  But it's been beautiful while it lasted.¹ 

It's been three or four years since I've been skiing, but the memories of briskly cold air, fast skis, and breathtaking mountain scenery tempts me to the hills.  As do the televised images of Sochi that we've all been watching -- ski jumps and runs set among the dramatic Caucasus mountains.

From what we see on television, it's hard to imagine that there were ever any concerns about the amount of snow available for the Olympics.  But everyone was, in fact, worried about the temperatures and the snow conditions -- right up until the beginning of the Games.  And some concern remains even now.  The temperatures at the Sochi venues are hovering right at the freezing level, although more snow and colder temperatures are predicted for next week.

Lurking in the back of everyone's mind is the subject of global warming.  Californians have virtually no snowpack this year, and the snowpack is only fifty percent of normal here in the Northwest Corner.  One year's aberration wouldn't be significant, of course.  But an article this week in the New York Times reminds us that Europe has lost half of its Alpine ice since 1850, and that in the past 47 years, the Northern hemisphere has lost a million square miles of spring snow cover.  At the present rate of decrease, the Western United States will lose 25 to 100 percent of its snowpack by 2100.

Luckily -- so to speak -- I won't be around to witness that snow sports Armageddon, and my days of active skiing will be even more radically curtailed.   But I will still want the opportunity to walk through crunchy snow, watching my breath condense in front of my face and finding myself surrounded by snow clad peaks, for as long as possible.  And even after I'm no longer able to drive into the mountains, I'd like to know the snow's still there on the mountains, still giving pleasure to those who do reach them.

In any event, our little snowfall last night -- what I referred to on Facebook as the "Great Blizzard of 2014" -- at least assures me that we snow enthusiasts have a few good years left ahead before we find ourselves simmering all year long in an atmosphere of super-heated carbon dioxide.  As I remind global warming skeptics -- who seize on every snow storm as proof of their position -- "local weather doesn't necessarily equate with global climate." 

My little mantra works in reverse, as well -- even while the globe is warming, perhaps irreversibly, for a few more years we still will get to enjoy our occasional bits of snowy weather locally.  And now, I really should go build a snowman, before it's too late.
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¹  Oregon and southern Washington had much heavier snowfalls over the past day or so.