I played hooky on Friday (i.e. used some overtime hours) to enjoy the weather. As I said to my husband, "I'm taking the day off to enjoy the fresh air and warmth to look for agates by the river, before it turns to dark skies and smoke."
I have been feeling very uneasy most of this winter and it is accelerating with this current spell of weather. I'm looking around and thinking, "is this the year for Prince George?" Videoing and taking photos our stuff for insurance purposes, and pulling together an emergency kit full of cat food and litter for the beasts is a top priority. I've been putting that off a bit too long.
Side note: my weather station (east of the airport in Tabor-Ferndale) hit +21.2*C just before 4pm yesterday. There were definitely warmer temps at other home wx stations I looked at around town.
Big big big same re: uneasiness. And aside from the obvious, immediate impacts of this weather (eg communities catching fire, exposure to smoke for the rest of us, etc), I'm thinking about the health effects of this constant mid-grade anxiety and stress. Surely it's not normal or healthy to see a beautiful, sunny day and feel the tickle of tears at the back of my throat. This is the first year that I've put 'back up photos onto a portable hard drive' on my urgent to-do list, and during my semiannual emerg kit review in January I included a collection of printed photos of family, friends, and pets.
We drove through McBride in mid-February and I specifically looked up the Dominion Creek watershed, then paid close attention on the drive. We came home on a day that it was snowing in PG, and it started about 10 minutes west of McBride, which really broke my heart - there was very little snow around Dominion Creek, and had the weather system moved roughly 40 km to the east, the creek would have gotten at least a smidge of that moisture. I can only imagine what that added stress is doing to the residents of that area, and I've been reducing my own water consumption ahead of possible restrictions here.
I read somewhere that each generation has some event (or series of events) that feel like it's the worst humanity has seen, and these fire seasons are currently the driving force behind that feeling for me (in addition to, y'know, everything else going on +gesturing vaguely towards the window+).
I’ve been aware of climate change since the late 1990s when the pine beetle started destroying the forests, watching the red creep across the country. I’m very worried about what is going to happen. We have done what we can as individuals while watching a large number of people ignore the warning signs. I hope more people will support measures to at least slow it down. I suspect we are beyond the point of reversing it. I hope I’m wrong. :(
We're socked in by greenspace. In past years, we've sent precious things to our concrete storage unit just in case. But this is the first year I'm considering purging all non-essentials from my house altogether. If we needed to leave in a hurry we'd have minutes notice at most. That has been top of mind since the river started drying up last summer. Winter has only increased this anxiety.
I played hooky on Friday (i.e. used some overtime hours) to enjoy the weather. As I said to my husband, "I'm taking the day off to enjoy the fresh air and warmth to look for agates by the river, before it turns to dark skies and smoke."
I have been feeling very uneasy most of this winter and it is accelerating with this current spell of weather. I'm looking around and thinking, "is this the year for Prince George?" Videoing and taking photos our stuff for insurance purposes, and pulling together an emergency kit full of cat food and litter for the beasts is a top priority. I've been putting that off a bit too long.
Side note: my weather station (east of the airport in Tabor-Ferndale) hit +21.2*C just before 4pm yesterday. There were definitely warmer temps at other home wx stations I looked at around town.
Big big big same re: uneasiness. And aside from the obvious, immediate impacts of this weather (eg communities catching fire, exposure to smoke for the rest of us, etc), I'm thinking about the health effects of this constant mid-grade anxiety and stress. Surely it's not normal or healthy to see a beautiful, sunny day and feel the tickle of tears at the back of my throat. This is the first year that I've put 'back up photos onto a portable hard drive' on my urgent to-do list, and during my semiannual emerg kit review in January I included a collection of printed photos of family, friends, and pets.
We drove through McBride in mid-February and I specifically looked up the Dominion Creek watershed, then paid close attention on the drive. We came home on a day that it was snowing in PG, and it started about 10 minutes west of McBride, which really broke my heart - there was very little snow around Dominion Creek, and had the weather system moved roughly 40 km to the east, the creek would have gotten at least a smidge of that moisture. I can only imagine what that added stress is doing to the residents of that area, and I've been reducing my own water consumption ahead of possible restrictions here.
I read somewhere that each generation has some event (or series of events) that feel like it's the worst humanity has seen, and these fire seasons are currently the driving force behind that feeling for me (in addition to, y'know, everything else going on +gesturing vaguely towards the window+).
I’ve been aware of climate change since the late 1990s when the pine beetle started destroying the forests, watching the red creep across the country. I’m very worried about what is going to happen. We have done what we can as individuals while watching a large number of people ignore the warning signs. I hope more people will support measures to at least slow it down. I suspect we are beyond the point of reversing it. I hope I’m wrong. :(
We're socked in by greenspace. In past years, we've sent precious things to our concrete storage unit just in case. But this is the first year I'm considering purging all non-essentials from my house altogether. If we needed to leave in a hurry we'd have minutes notice at most. That has been top of mind since the river started drying up last summer. Winter has only increased this anxiety.