It’s cold outside. I’m not sure if you noticed. I noticed it because as I was cleaning the snow off my car this afternoon, my toes went numb. Yes, I checked to make sure that I was wearing shoes. Our outside thermometer is showing -1F degree, but the wind chill is reported to be about -20F. Just the sort of weather to make you want to go for an evening stroll.
It’s only a matter of time before some newscaster starts cracking jokes about the current lack of global warming. How quickly we forget that it was almost 60F in Pennsylvania less than two weeks ago. Global warming refers to warming the average temperature of the Earth; warming the Earth as much as 1 degree is enough to throw off the climate in strange ways. Places that should stay cold—like the ice caps—will warm up, while wet areas will have droughts, and temperate areas will swing wildly from one extreme to another. Didn’t you wonder why we’re breaking so many weather records? Now you know.