Talking About the Weather

When Chan Master Dongshan once said, “Why don't you go to a place where it's neither hot nor cold?,” he wasn't referring to Atlanta.

As you've probably gathered by yesterday's post complaining about eating outside in the sun and humidity, it's been warm in Georgia lately. Very warm. Today, the temperature hit 99 degrees F based on the thermometer in my car, which tells me that it must have reached 100 somewhere around here (surely, I couldn't have been in the single hottest place in the whole city).

It's only June 1, and temperatures are already reaching 100, heat normally reserved for late July and August. We broke the record for this date of 97 degrees, set way back in 1947.

And the forecast is for these high temperatures to continue at least through the weekend. So naturally, when I got home tonight my AC wasn't working. It turns out I just needed new batteries in the thermostat, but it gave me enough of a scare to realize how dependent I am on air conditioning.

Violent thunderstorms across the South have already knocked down trees and disturbed my dreams several evenings this spring. Tornadoes of biblical proportions have decimated Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri earlier this year, and a few days later, tornadoes claimed an additional 18 lives in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. I understand that today a twister even hit Springfield, Massachusetts, a northern town not typically associated with tornadoes. Last April set a new record for the month with 875 tornadoes; the previous record was set in April 1974 with 267 tornadoes.

And June 1 marks the official beginning of hurricane season. NOAA predicts above-normal hurricane activity this season.

But before I make the obvious reference to the obviousness of global warming (actually, I just made the obvious reference right there), I will acknowledge that we've also experience some unusually late cold spells this past spring. We've gone straight from "furnace season" to "AC season," with scarcely a break between. I'll let you make the obvious distinction between "global warming" and "climate change."

If old man Dongshan were around for all of this, he wouldn't have had to teach anyone about impermanence. The proof of that is in front of our very eyes.