Clumpiness or signs of global climate instability?

As a long time weather watcher, I've seen quite a bit of interesting climatic changes as the decades have gone by. Living, as I have, in southwestern Missouri, I've been exposed to all sorts of weather phenomena including; tornadoes, ice storms, ice thunder, flooding rains and prolonged droughts where everything around me dried up and then sometimes caught fire! The thing was, however, that during all that long period of time, it felt right! By that I mean that the ebb and flow of the seasons and even the occasional tumultuous storms and such were all in the range of 'average' or 'normal' as measured by thirty years historical standards! But, that's no longer true, sad to say.

Starting around 2012, I began to sense a change in the flow. That is to say, I perceived a sort of meteorological 'clumpiness' (my made up word) in the patterns of weather over time. A bunching together of patterns within patterns that persist for a while and then suddenly change directions. For example, first there was what I felt to be a general warming trend that went on for some years between 2009 and 2012 with generally mild winters and mild summers. Now, however, it feels as though some climatic switch has been thrown (maybe somewhere around early 2013) and things are seem to be getting strang(er); with colder, much colder in the winters and hotter, much hotter summers! Like I said, in a clumpy sort of way! And, if I'm right in this feeling, the coming summer of 2014 will be a real scorcher followed by a very severely cold winter of 2014-15! I hope I'm wrong in this prediction!

Note: You might wonder if I have data to back this assertion up. No, I don't! I just have a gut instinct which I've learned to trust over the years.Be sure and visit my weather page at www.taneyservices.com!

How about a nice late winter assault?

After what was a very promising trend in warming temperatures, my hopes of planting out some veggies has been thwarted by a late winter season blast from our friend to the north! The National Weather Service is calling for a mixed bag of most all the nasties that can be thrown at us including; severe storms, high winds, rain, sleet and frost as a strong front sweeps through the area overnight on Sunday, the 13^th of April! Note that the graph of temps has been replaced with one accurate through the 27th!

Fortunately, I don't have much planted outside and am thinking that some rainfall would not be all that bad as my area in southwestern Missouri is a number of inches behind the average!

Update: As is evidenced by the graph, things moderated quite a bit in the later parts of the month! Now, as we are approaching the last days of April, a minor cool down is forecast with highs at around 55F to 60F and lows in the upper thirties. This will be cold enough that I may have to cover some of the more tender vegetable starts that were planted out over the past week! Right at the 28th of the month, we are running about 2 degrees warmer than normal with three inches of rainfall.  

April and her roller coaster ride!

If I were going to compare the month of April to some other event in real life, I think it would be one of those carnivals that roll through small towns, such as mine, every summer. There's lots of ups and downs, flashing lights and strange happenings in both! No roller coaster ride ever made can match the way the weather can be near 80 degrees one moment and then feel like it's freezing the next! Up and down and all around, just like the rides at a good old fashioned carnival!

This year, April promises to be no exception with the month starting out in the mid 70's on the 2^nd and 3^rd, before tumbling back downwards again after throwing a lightening bolt or two our way! Oh, and there will be rain in the mix there somewhere too! Lots of rain, as about four inches will likely fall on our collective heads, at some point in the next thirty days.

The real beauty of April, though, is all the stuff that starts growing with such wild abandon – trees turn green, bushes flash yellow and daffodils spring up just about everywhere you look! There is simply no other month in the entire year that has this wild and crazy feel to it. Yep, it's spring alright!