Today is my birthday and for the first time since we came to Montreal decades ago, no snow has fallen so far this season. Every other year there have been at least a few flakes by now, even though rare has been the birthday when we had to wade through snow.
Today the high temperature reached 14 C (55 F) and the sun shone marvelously. When I walked around the mountain this morning, many trees still glowed yellow and orange: leaves have just not fallen when they usually do.
Tomorrow who knows what the temperature will be, but it's clear that all our tomorrows will be different than our yesterdays when it comes to climate. We've brought it on ourselves, and even as I enjoy this Indian Summer, I fret about what this means.
8 comments:
There was snow here on Friday near Square-Victoria metro.
Happy walkable birthday!
It is remarkable - I was working for a good part of the day and only got a part of the extraordinary sun and luminosity, the trees still full of leaves, that are simply shrivelling and falling off. Did laps around Parc Jarry and various local errands, but didn't have time to get up the Mountain one last time.
It is a quandary for me as I HATE winter cold and especially snow which I see as a prison - not being able to cycle and even hard to walk as much as I like to when arthritis flares up - but I know that this climate change is causing dire consequences in the Far North, to the south and even to some extent hereabouts, from the Great Ice Storm (remember, it wasn't cold then) to the extreme flooding in the Richelieu Valley.
The farmers at the market certainly say the climate has changed, and most of them are no radical ecologists.
So pleased to hear this. Thank you, Emily.
Beautiful photo, Mary. I was in Verdun last Friday (Nov. 4) and saw a few snowflakes for about 5 minutes. Then the sun came back!
I guess you would've had the same comment if you lived in Paris (except for the orange trees). Happy belated birthday, Mary.
Glad to learn that there was at least a little snow already. Thanks also for the birthday wishes.
Not that my earlier comment is meant to dispute climate change, of course.
Neither is my personal dislike of snow!
The Inuit are struggling for "the right to be cold". And Gilles Courtemanche had a poignant story in Le Devoir (online too) written just before he died, about climate change (desertification of the Sahel, in this case) and mass human migration, and the barriers to people who are simply trying to live.
And it is so much swifter than anyone thought. Will not only affect wee Jeanne, but even her parents...
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