Finally, rain!

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There are few things that we complain about as much as about the weather. It is either too hot, too cold, too cloudy, too rainy or too dry. And as the weather also is somewhat of a personal preference, whatever is the ideal weather for one person might be a reason to complain mightily for another.

That being said; as long as the weather is more or less the way we expect it to be ~ like cold, wet in the Winter, and warm, sunny in Summer time ~ most of us can handle the weather and its patterns quite nicely. Ultimately it is what it is…

Yet as the climates are changing, we may find ourselves facing unexpected weather patterns. Suddenly the weather is no longer ‘behaving as expected’. The temperatures can be off, making it either too warm or too cold for the time of the year. Precipitation can be so abundant that it causes problems with flooding; or it can be so low that an area can suffer from a drought situation that can become more severe as time goes on. And storms that may bring lots of snow, rain and wind on one continent, may still bring high winds and extreme flooding thousands of miles away.

Suddenly we are at a loss as to what is happening. We handle what is thrown our way as best we can, dealing with the upsets that are caused by the consequences of changing climates. And when at some point the weather ~ in whichever extremity it has chosen to express itself ~ finally transforms itself into a more moderate pattern, there is a big sigh of relief!

And it seems like this is true for humanity as well as for nature.

In California this Winter has been extremely dry and warm. Great for me as I am here on an extended vacation; yet an enormous hardship when you live here… It is most definitely the first time since I have been visiting this area, that the hills haven’t turned green in the Winter. Streams are drying up, making it impossible for salmon to reach its spawning grounds. And as lakes disappear, wildlife moves closer and closer to urban areas…

Tonight it finally started raining.
Not just a heavy fog, or a drizzle; real rain, and enough of it to soak the ground.

A big sigh of relief is heard and felt all around.
People are happy as this rain is needed to safeguard the drinking water supply. Nature is happy as it can finally quench its thirst.
Puddles are lining the streets, yet today there is nothing to complain about…
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