Shift

Count me crazy, but I have a theory. A theory about the weather patterns.

People have been commenting for years about how the expected weather is not appearing, but instead, strange and unusual things are happening. True? Now everywhere I have ever lived, people will tell you, “oh, if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes and it will change.” I finally did actually experience that in Oregon a few years back. I think it was sunny one minute, and literally five minutes later it was all dark and raining like crazy (or was it the other way around? I’m not sure, but it definitely was weird.)

Back to my theory - Remember the earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the resulting tsunami in December of, what, 2004, or was it 2005? I recall hearing that the event was large enough to throw the earth’s axis off by, I thought they said, “a quarter of an inch.” I know that doesn’t sound like much, but I started to think that it was enough to shift things a bit. I am not a weather person, and I think that some weather is created by topography, but that the majority is created way high in the sky. I’m being real technical here, aren’t I?

Now the earthquake in New Zealand in February, and the one in Japan in March, supposedly together threw the earth’s axis off by 18cm… that’s around 7 inches! Goodness gracious, the island of Japan moved a purported 8 feet!

So is anyone else noticing that the tornadoes that usually occur in Oklahoma and Texas, ended up in Virginia and the Carolinas last weekend? And the dry weather that turned Arizona and New Mexico into deserts over time now seems to be the cause of the huge wildfires in Texas for the past two weeks?*

We had the most beautiful spring day yesterday… sunny, cool air, slight breeze… and today it is snowing like a son-of-gun! Are we getting the moisture that usually falls on the west side of the Cascades? Hmmm

At least one of my fellow workers is happy… he is like way into cross-country skiing :)

* from a CNN article today:
Fire-friendly conditions are expected to return Thursday in various parts of the state, the National Weather Service said.

"Even if we get two inches of rain the ground's going to eat it up," said David Hennig, a Weather Service meteorologist in Midland, Texas. "We need a pattern shift." (bold mine - interesting comment and use of words)

West Texas averages nearly 15 inches of rain a year, according to Hennig. In the past six months, only 13-hundredths of an inch of rain has been recorded in that part of the state. While October through March is typically the dry season, that amount of rainfall is far below what it should be, Hennig said.

He said weather models show the possibility of more storms this weekend and perhaps next week. While the rain is needed, storms accompanied by lightning pose a fire risk, he said.