Idaho’s Weather Portends a Dramatic Shift

That headline paraphrases one I saw late last week in the Idaho Statesman.  It previewed a return of snow and cold, and I guess from the standpoint of the change from our very mild winter, colder air is a story.  However, we have a company that conducts extensive research into what drives page views in a crowded online universe.  The Statesman headline was sheer clickbait.  I saw the same long-range forecasts late last week, and the forecast indicated some light snow showers for about the middle of this week.  Here’s a shocker: it sometimes snows in winter!

Be Very Afraid and View the Page

I guess we should take note of the paper’s editorial tone, because much of the news media coverage of Idaho’s current weather pattern has been to warn that, due to climate change, the sky is falling.  The thing is, this looks to mirror a winter from 11 years ago, when I was out for some afternoon walks wearing shorts in February.  At the same time, the East was in a deep freeze.  Sound familiar?  Can anyone name a winter where snow suddenly started falling on December 21^st, didn’t have a thaw until March 21^st, and then suddenly flowers bloomed?

News Media is in Desperation

Repeat after me, like no two snowflakes are alike, winters aren’t all the same.  Over the long range, we get an average, which isn’t a synonym for normal, as the TV news types would have us believe.

For everyone suffering due to our mild winter, I just received my gas and electricity bills.  They were a combined 60 dollars!  Next year, we could be buried in snow and living in a freezer.