Saturday, January 02, 2010

Global Warming, Local Cooling

Des Moines is currently in the deep freeze with a severe cold front settling in the area for a time. The temperatures are bitterly cold. Yesterday I took Mom to an appointment with her doctor and the frigid air triggered a serious bout of asthma. For the first time in many months Mom has had to use her nebulizer machine to clear her airways and help her breathe. Scary!

So now Mom is remaining inside ... and going just a little bit stir crazy. She would like to get outside, but is still pretty ill and dares not risk another asthma attack. When I was running an errand this afternoon I heard the weather forecast on the radio. The current temperature was minus six degrees and the wind chill made it feel like minus 23 degrees.

Des Moines just completed the second snowiest December on record. The city has already expended more than one third of the snow removal budget for the entire winter season. I suppose we are fortunate in that our last nine winters have reportedly been milder than normal. But while global warming apparently is occurring in some parts of the world, we are experiencing local freezing.

2 comments:

mines family said...

glad to hear you made it home safe, even if it was to the "deep freezer".Give Brenda our love and take good care of each other.
Maridean

Daydreams and Reality said...

Kansas City is the same (maybe not as bad)...it will be down to ZERO tonight...is this global warming?? I've been thinking that there is a cruel joke being played on us...sometime, when no one was looking they moved all of us to Canada...seriously...it's too cold and snow...forget it!!! I've had trouble just getting into my driveway...how many weeks until Spring?????? I'm counting down!!