Changing How We Think About Weather

The weather changes. Yet it doesn't. That's how we think and talk about the climate we are experiencing day in and day out. And along these lines, we also know that, depending on where we live in relation to the equator and the two poles of the earth, it's myhst likely going to be colder in the winter and warmer in the summer.

So, we dress and conduct our lives accordingly. If in January, for example, we are living in Minnesota, we expect the day to provide us with low numbers on our thermometers and, thus, we wear the proper clothing.

The above is, of course, mere observation; it does not tell us precisely what to expect the weather to be. Yes, it changes, but, as we're discovering more and more, not always in the ways we expect. It can be, for example, so warm on some winter days in Minnesota people may have far too many clothes on and frequently discover they simply are unable to make ourselves cool enough.

Extreme flooding sometimes happens. How well we know. And because we are unprepared, the flooding can cause much travail among us, not just massive destruction and mayhem, but multiple deaths as well. .

So, it just may be that we humans have a great need to face up to our ignorance. If rain is forecast, we must know that it may bring major flooding. Bitter cold, extremely hot weather and unusually fast wind speeds can also catch us unprepared

It's going to rain tomorrow; we may be told. That's not enough. We need to know every detail about that forecast the weather officials can provide; and if they can, we need those same officials to tell us what we must do in order to prepare for the worst eventualities.

In short, regarding the weather; we need to acknowledge that we never know enough.