It’s nearly 80 degrees outside as I write this. I went outside for a few minutes this afternoon at work and, after I came back in, discovered a full-grown wasp crawling on my wheelchair. Most of my fellow Minnesotans are greeting this freakishly warm weather with enthusiasm and I certainly enjoy going out sans jacket and hat. But I’m also disturbed. I understand that weather is not the same as climate and that fluke weather events are not necessarily indicative of larger trends, yet it’s difficult to ignore the increasing frequency of violent storms and plain ol’ weird weather. This is not normal and, if this is an early indication of a new meteorological normal, it doesn’t bode well for locales further south that already endure brutally hot summers.
Perhaps this really is just a fluke and I’ll never see another unusually warm March like this one. That would be reassuring, but it also seems like wishful thinking.
