I'm back on weather watching. I've been studying up a bit on this warm weather we have had the last few years. The heat wave of 2007 was historical with some of the data even enough to have me wondering if there is something to global warming. These extremely hot summers and mild winters seems to be related to the El Nino/La Nina cycle. And from what I can tell (although I admit to being no expert at this) they (the forecasters) are predicting this La Nina hot and dry weather to continue until next winter. So expect another hot summer...but hope that they are wrong. According to the NCDC, six of the ten warmest years on record have been since 1998. That is six of the last nine years(2007 report)have been record breakers!! The El Nino/La Nina cycle runs from 2-7 years so it seems that this heat trend couldn't last much longer than a few more years. If that is the only cause of the heat trend. Which as nature never runs on one variable, I well know it is not. But like the little ice age and the following warming trend, I rest assured that God will bring back the cool weather..even if not in my lifetime.

Even so, many are looking into long-term changes. for example, this article.. http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/homestyle/08/08/climate.gardening.ap/index.html

2008 was the driest on record in the Tri-Cities area with about 24 inches of rain total!! And microclimate can vary so much in the mountains that who can tell what we really had on the south side of the Clinch Mountains. For more info see : (http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2008-02-21-0001.html)

Enough said for one night.