Having the fortune of living over 50 years on planet Earth gives me the perspective of seeing changes in climate over time. I am amazed at global warming. This process started before I was born. When humans started burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil) to produce energy, carbon emissions started collecting in our atmosphere. 2023 was the hottest year on record, 1.2 degrees C (2.1 F) above the average baseline from 1951-1980. 1.2 doesn’t sound like a big deal to me, but the effects are dramatic.
One manifestation is warmer winters with less snow. My brother sent me a photo of his front yard in Iron Mountain, Michigan (left). The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is famous for its snowfall. Winds often come from the west, flowing over Lake Superior picking up moisture. Winds drop the water in the form of snow in the first land mass it encounters, which is the Upper Peninsula. Even the towns closer to the lake like Marquette (live camera screenshot right) show a lack of snow in February.
Contrast this with the photo below of my dad, Charles Kralovec taken in the late 1960s or early 1970s. He is showing the snow bank level in front of the door of my childhood home in Caspian, Michigan. I remember we used to get stuck in the snow when I was a kid. We would pull our foot out of our boot and then have to try to fish it back out while laying flat on the snow. We also made snow tunnels all over the yard.
I sense the winters are also shifting to be more in the spring (March/April) and less in December-February. This is only anecdotal however and I have not done any research. We are having a mild winter in Tashkent this year. It has snowed probably 5-6 times but it only lasts a day or two. Temperatures this week will reach 18C (64 F) this weekend and will be in the 70s the following weekend. I’ve been taking my dog for walks when it snows to enjoy the fresh air and quiet snow brings, but the next day, it is like it never happened.
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