A manual
would be handy. Or a binder with glossy photos. How about an App?
There must be some way of figuring out what’s going on with the weather.
It still feels like a fridge outside.
In the
middle of this cold wet spring we had to get close and personal with the
other type of fridge – the real one that keeps milk and veggies
fresh. We had to buy a new one, even though a shiny barbeque is a more
seasonal purchase. However, it might be a while before we can spend
sunny days cooking outside.
We’re still waiting for the snow to leave
the grass. And winter boots still are permanent attachments on our
feet. Even Lake Superior is trying to work it out. Low water
levels are teasing the imagination as well as the dock builders.
Where has all the water gone? There’s more and more exposed beach and
boulders. I can walk on sand that is supposed to be under water and
sit on rock that is more used to the weight of waves. Ice, quite
reluctant to let go, still grasps part of the shoreline. The inland
lakes are buried under white sheets, waiting for the big melt, as are
the eager fishermen. However,
patience will win out. The melt will come. Ice has left most of the
rivers. The Sand and Agawa Rivers are swollen with frothy currents
that will join with those of the lake. The lake currents are of a
different variety again. Those on Lake Superior follow a predictable
path, one that boatmen and scientists have been charting for
decades and decades. Their maps show surface waters running in a counter
clockwise direction.
The currents make a slow arc up from Whitefish
Bay and pick up speed as they approach the far north shore. The
fastest surface currents, sometimes reaching speeds of 60 cm a second,
are in the middle of the lake and flow towards the nose of the wolf-head
shaped lake. At the
same time as we watch our spring melt, there is another flow, much
further away, to keep an eye on. The circulation of the water in the
distant Atlantic Ocean can shape the weather outside our own doors.
When warm surface water, such as the Gulfstream, travels as a current from
the equator, it becomes cooler and denser. The current then acts
as a conveyor belt, transporting the warm surface water toward
the Poles and then returning to the Equator with cold, deep water.
But excessive amounts of freshwater dumped into the North Atlantic
from melting could alter the density of the seawater.
The pooling
and release of glacial meltwater, the sudden collapse of an ice shelf
or the lubrication of a glacier's base through repeated melting
could slow down the flow of the North Atlantic Ocean current. Some
scientists think that it would take about two centuries for freshwater
runoff to bring the North Atlantic conveyor belt to a standstill.
Another
theory floating around concerns the lack of sunspot activity. The sun’s
influence on the earth’s climate can be measured by looking at
previous data. Comparing these observations gives an interesting picture.
Through the use of hindcasting (using information from past events),
it is possible to see how carbon build-up in tree rings coincides
with expanding and receding glaciers and sunspot activity.
In other
words, fewer sunspots mean less tree growth and less ice melting. Could
this be why we are so cold right now? Did the conveyor belt of warm air
take an early dive? Did it head back south after it hit the cold end
of the pool? Is the sun’s retreat from activity cooling off the
earth? We will have to wait for future hindcasts to know those answers.
Forecasters aren’t infallible. They have theories but no absolute
truths. There is no perfect manual for the weather.
But our
fridge manual did offer some comedic relief from the cold. As we read
over the “how tos”, we came to a section that gave us both a laugh.
The manual writers must have had a hilarious time putting those notes
together. They described in great detail all the noises that one can
expect from a fridge. Pulsating, whirring, popping, rattling, banging
and hissing are part of the repertoire, as are creaking, cracking,
buzzing, gurgling and sizzling.
The best was Ker-plunk!
That’s
probably what some folks feel like doing right now. And that’s ok. Not
to worry. The manual says that’s a normal part of the operation.
