The weather’s nuts

Bouncing off of the metal roof, acorns make quite a racket. It seems like they’re earlier this year, but I don’t keep careful records.

Our friend, Bill, claims that you can predict the average temperature of the coming winter by the number of acorns on the ground in the fall. I heard him say this just a few years ago and, so far, he’s been right. Last fall’s crop was plentiful and we had a tediously cold, although not bitter winter. The year before, it was a light crop and an extraordinarily warm season followed.

There you have it. No matter how you phrase it — the weather’s nuts or Bill’s nuts — we’re looking at the ground to see what’s ahead.

The rest of the country, indeed, the rest of the world, is having a hot time. Dr. Jeff Masters, over at Weather Underground, reported that July was the 4th warmest on record. In the northeastern US, we’ve averaged a few degrees below normal.

A couple of the local meteorologists are skeptical, even snarky, about the idea of global warming. Their claim, valid enough to generate FUD, is that our weather records only go back to the late 19th century. There is reason to discuss the point at which weather (short-term events) becomes climate (long-term trends). Most of those who know this stuff agree that, overall, we’re in a long-term warming cycle, mostly the result of human activity, that will have pockets of anomalous behavior in certain regions. In other words, New England can have a cool summer even during an overall period of global warming.

The swamp maples can show bright red. The blueberry bushes can, as they’re already doing, show their deep red leaves to mark the end of summer. In the coming weeks, we’ll listen to the acorns bouncing off the roof and learn what we learn about the winter ahead.