If you've lived long, have you noticed a shift in the weather patterns in your area? If, so, please describe.

@greensnacks Guessing you might be living in the northern latitudes of the states.

I find it's harder to adjust to unfamiliar temperatures.

@hartfire I live in/nearby the Mediterranean

@greensnacks I've noticed that's been changing depending on where around the Mediterranean. I watch the international weather and climate reports. Looks like people are needing to adapt to change everywhere - and in some places, like where the Sahara is growing and Pacific Islands losing land, that's getting impossible.

I travelled Spain, South of France, Italy and Greece maybe 40 years ago - all in summer. Loved it. Wonderful memories.

@goodlil666 American and Canadian firefighters flew over to help us with those 2019 fires.
One lost his life when his plane crashed, due to a firestorm created windspout I think.
I remember staying indoors, doors and windows closed for four days, and bits of smoke still got in via the fridge, oven and shower vents. Couldn't see trees further than a meter away for the thickness of the smoke outside, glued to the radio for fire updates and warnings, and the sun a psychedelic crimson ball eerily penetrating a thick brown sky. My heart pumped loud enough to hear it for most of those days.
Our average rainfall has gone from 1.200 mm per year to between 1.5 and 1.6.

Our area (Tweed Valley) has many green minded people, enough that 3 out of 7 of our councillors are Green or green aligned. The Labour man sits on the fence but votes in favour of local pro-environment issues about half the time. That's a shift in the right direction.

I think the Conservative tendency to resist renewable energy, save old growth native forests and limit pollution is actually quite odd. It's easy to see now that climate change is devastatingly costly. A lot of the ecologically beneficial technologies are able to produce energy more cheaply. Plantation forestry can provide wood more reliably that stripping native forests. Cleaning up oceans and waterways and limiting fishing hauls will provide more and healthier food, and better livelihoods. Growing bamboo and hemp for paper, fibreboard and other building products could mean new buildings have a much lower carbon footprint. There is so much that we already know how to do. It takes a shift in the economy, but it by no means ruins business. So many big corporations are starting to recycle and learning that going green is functional on every level.
So why don't the right wing pollies understand this yet?

BTW, I write on a laptop, which makes longer conversations delicious. So glad you like to chat.
And so glad to meet a fellow campaigner for a healthier planet! :)

@goodlil666 I agree on that wonderful list of industrial hemp products, and the health spinoffs from varietals. Israel is way ahead in research on the latter.

Terrifying and tragic, that story of the firefighters all dying like that, and the team member who couldn't warn them.

We had one story of an amazing survival in our firestorms. A man had bought a property that formerly belonged to ceramic artists. There were rolls of kilm insulation material and piles of kiln fire-bricks left lying around. He built an igloo out of the bricks, butted up against the concrete foundations. He lined it with the insulation. When the fire got close enough, he crawled inside and sealed himself in. The firestorm passed over, destroyed everything except the old kiln, the concrete house-foundation and his igloo. It didn't last long, so there was no risk of him suffocating - though I imagine one could probably include a diver's air tank and bottles of water.
I think it creates a few hints about how we could build safer houses.

What legislation was passed, during the Biden administration, that you see as disastrous?
Or was it the inability to pass enough legislation?
And affecting what kinds of issues on the national level?

@hartfire You will have to let me know how it works. Maybe consider some way to incorporate those silicone beads that you freeze and can wear around your neck to fit inside the hat. Just a thought.

@goodlil666 Silicone beads strung on fishing line could add comfort on the tie - interesting idea.
Will post a photo when done. :)

@goodlil666 Yes, there is every possibility age could be a factor.
I feel the cold me now than in the past.
Seeing mass die off of trees due to lack of rain does net bode well for the future though.
Perth's long term average annual rainfall up to 2001 was 803 mm - 31".
From 2001 the average rainfall has fallen to 683 mm - 27"
The dams are not filling. This has two reasons, increased population requiring more water, less rainfall.
Mundaring Weir last overflowed in 1996.

@tindrummer Sheesh!
My school geography lessons described California as having the widest variation of terrains of any state in the USA, "mediterranean" in the most arable areas - great for wine and olives, - and Spanish style crops.
Maybe if I looked at the CA stats online, I might be able to see how the patterns are changing.
Thank you for your responses. :)
If I could afford to travel, CA would be one of the places I'd love to explore.

@hartfire Where are you?
Hope you get to travel here.
I love it especially for varied outdoor fun stuff - mtns and coast.
Sierra Nevada and Big Sur among others.

@tindrummer On rural land near Tyalgum village, Tweed Valley, Far North Coast NSW, Australia.
If I could, I'd love to go as a cook on an ocean going 14-berth sailing yacht with solar power.
Yes, I love what I've seen in film of those wonderful mountains. Ours here are so ancient they've been worn to nubs by the millions of years. Yours are still young and growing, large enough to dwarf mere humans and put us in our proper place.
I'd also love the music, galleries, universities, Esalon, the naturalist movements, do a camping trail on horseback in the wild, sample the varied cultures, spanish/mexican, etc. Would love to watch the kaleidoscope of people along the broadwalks of the beaches. And maybe swim out into the sealife. 🙂

@22Michelle Yes, that immigration issue is major. When agriculture fails due to desertification, or greater unpredictability of weather for crops, that causes many people to leave their homes in search of food security. That's a major issue for countries perceived as "food rich".

@Neoerectus Wondering where you are.
Ingrigued by that avatar image of a camel!

@hartfire Nothing exotic, unfortunately, a l ocal guy who used to broker animals has a little family of camels... Go by routinely to say hello...

@Neoerectus Oh, how I envy that cameleer!
Hoping one day to do a camping holiday on camelback in the Australian far outback, Arhemland or similar. They have them as eco-tourism.
Camels are so affectionate when treated well.

@akindheart sometimes i look at pics comparing glaciers now and 100 years ago and it's honestly terrifying

@Alter4Ego and you are complaining

@Patriot96 was there one word of complaint in what was a purely factual post?

@Royricky09 I think those who deny it are becoming a tiny minority. There's still a strong contingent who believe it's part of the natural warming since the last ice-age, caused by volcanos (which has been disproven by vulcanologists and geologists).
And some fundamentalists believe it's part of God's plan for Armageddon.

There are those who don't yet understand that we're still at the lowest end of what is an exponential feedback loop - such that, while we can somewhat adapt to climate change, the higher it goes the more disastrous it will be. The has the heating of atmosphere and oceans has the momentum of a juggernaut: the hotter it gets, the more effort will be needed and longer it will take to return earth's climactic system back to it's natural trajectory.

I think we're already past the point of no return.
I'm sorry if what I've shared is too obvious.

@hartfire right

@dancingtongue I feel a kind of sadness - much improved from the agonising grief of a few years ago. I was profoundly attached to the natural beauty of our area. In recent years, native plants from far north Queensland have started propagating around here like weeds, brought in the poop of fruit bats. One of the weeds, Devil's Fig, is covered in thorns like a torture device. Some of new trees are quite beautiful. I've realised that this is a sign that our subtropical zone is becoming more tropical. Our mangos rarely survived the early spring storms, but now with the winter dry (usually) lasting longer and the summers getter wetter, the mangos are proliferating.
Maybe this is a part of how nature might adapt - at least to some extent. Though the evidence of increasing extinctions of species is telling a different story.

I've learned to accept that what we're experiencing, even though man-made, is just a part of the vast story of extinctions and evolution.
From the universe's "point of view" we are all just a blink in time.

@hartfire I understand the problem. I'm simply saying the weather reports are just not accurate enough to be counted on.

@Nitedoc Sorry for having stated the unnecessary.
Am aware that some regions are becoming far less predictable.
In my area, I can still rely on the weather (most of the time) to help me prepare for the following day's work. Pulling weeds by the roots after rain, slashing 8' high grass when it's dry, and indoor chores when wet.

@hartfire No problem, it's fine.

@PhoenixPhail kinda makes you wonder if the EXPERTS were correct in the past about cause of tornadoes

@Patriot96 I think they were correct about the cause, it's just that the jet stream has shifted over the years.

@Wireman over forty dire predictions by EXPERTS . Not one has come true

@Patriot96 All the predictions, and all man made experiments.

@MaBalzEsHari Like Covid. Oh, wait, never mind.

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays Yeah all of that is made up. The REAL things though are Lizard People and the deep state and the Cabal. And weather machines.

@Patriot96 weather has NEVER been static

@SandWitch heart 🤓

@SandWitch Some advantages to climate change in a few rare places. Lucky you! :)

@hartfire same deal here in central coastal California - even more temperate - so lucky

@Musicman It can also be altered by circumstances. Such is the case where live.

@Musicman That's true, though I've been finding the cycles themselves are changing, at least compared to the times we have on record.