52° (F), raw and raining is what it is on this June 2nd; the same as it was on June 1st. Now there are places getting much worse weather, so this is not any cry for sympathy. However, this is a beginning to summer unlike any yours truly has experienced in the last couple of decades in New York. The season may not officially begin until June 21st, but the warm 70° and 80°+ weather had always settled in for the long haul by the start of June. The current chilly snap feels like yet one more tentacle of this past winter that did not want to die, reaching up from the cold grave when we thought it had finally truly gone.
What’s really wonderful, however, is that it all fits into the overall theory of global warming climate change. So there’s no need to worry that anyone is getting that wrong. All weather events can be explained by that theory, which makes it positively the most brilliant theory ever invented, and evidence enough of the fantastic progress of the human animal. Indeed, when the president of the United States a few weeks ago warned the U.S. Coast Guard of the challenges they will inevitably be faced with as a result, such as teeming hordes of climate refugees, he may well have had in mind thousands of mink-wearing ladies, investment bankers and Trump-Tower-dwelling celebrities fleeing a July blizzard in Manhattan. He would be well able to take that or any other extreme weather event and trumpet it as vindication. All weather anytime and anywhere proves the anthropogenic climate change theory, and this ought to make us feel very secure (albeit determined to take corrective action to tackle it).
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And indeed we had a cold snap last August that made such a scenario as described above seem not so impossible. So let’s see: New York City had an unusually cool summer last year, followed by an unusually long and consistently below-freezing winter, followed now by a freakishly cold start to this summer. You could almost call it a pattern.
I’d been wondering why there have been so many Coast Guard boats on the East River lately. It’s a good thing that the best minds in the world are on top of this whole climate business.
“How About You?” from Frank Sinatra: Songs for Swingin’ Lovers
