Noticing a changing climate
I've been watching the weather with interest (here, in Ontario, Canada) for more than 50 years, and flying for more than 40 of those years. Though some weather patterns are predictably similar to those of decades past, I am noticing more change more recently. There are weather patterns I have never seen before. This is coupled with more precise forecasting, and my frequent reference to the Environment Canada weather radar image for my area.
For the second year we had a silly hot summer, which this year seemed to change within a week or two into winter. In effect, winter has come more than a month early, and stayed. And even at that, the week or so long stretches of nice weather with a lingering high pressure area just have not happened. Though it's been a miserable and cold autumn here, now winter is settling in, its a few degrees warmer than usual, so right around freezing - but still winter.
One of my clients operate polar research aircraft, one task of which is to fly over and measure the thickness of arctic and antarctic sea ice. we know it's been receding over the last 11 years I've been involved, as they are having to fly farther toward the pole each season to get to the start of the ice to measure it! It got to the point where we had to approve a gross weight increase to the research aircraft to enable them to carry enough fuel to get to the ice to measure it!
The relation to private flying? Well hardly any flying for me this autumn! Normally I could fly most days in the autumn, not this year! I've only flown fair weather three times since mid October!
So I'm no climate expert, but I'm seeing the changes, different weather here in Ontario, which is generally continental high pressure nice a lot, the fires raging in western North America, much worse than decades previous, and obvious warming in the arctic. Climate change is real, I wonder how far it takes us, before we can slow our effect on the world's climate.