Climate Change

Sometimes I wish scientists had used the terminology Climate Change rather than global warming, because although the planet is warming quicker than in years past, the real risk of climate change is the unpredictability and severity of the storms we are going to experience. In addition to changing the weather systems, which also impacts our ability to forecast what we might expect, it is also going to change the shape of land on the planet. One of the things that causes those types of change is water. In 2013, we had weather that was described as a thousand year flood. Although we haven’t yet reached that level, we are seeing catastrophic hail again this year and spot flooding in areas around the greater Denver region.

Too much rain for the drainage to handle

Amanda went home for lunch and when she returned she had to drive her truck to get on the farm

The area in front of Ashke’s stall.

It’s actually pretty dry compared to earlier.

Pile of hail several hours after the storm.

This slid off the corner of the barn.

Puddles in the indoor. Water came in through the door and under the walls.

Water from under the walls.

Indoor arena will take a couple of days to dry out.

Pile of hail on the back side of the barn wing, right next to a door.

This actually caused flooding inside the barn. One of the horses had to be moved to a box stall for the evening.

Do you know there are actually new cloud formations that have been identified and named?

I wonder what it takes to create a new cloud formation after 1000 years of watching and tracking clouds?

Wall Cloud taken from the back porch of a friend’s house.

With rotation.

Dropping a tail. 

We had two that touched down today.

A fox that crossed the road in front of me on my way home.

Out racing the storm.

Some people say that climate change is natural, and they are right, However, human forced climate change is happening at a much more rapid pace than evolution can keep up with (I will not discuss evolution with anyone. It is the closest thing to scientific fact that exists. It is real.) Humans have pretty long life spans in comparison to other animals, and although we have seen insects like moths and butterflies and even trees adapt to their changing environments, humans will change much more slowly. (Although, I do personally believe that the reduction of our population growth is an indicator of evolutionary change.) That slow change will put us at risk, just as the dinosaurs were at risk when their climate changed rapidly and drastically. The saddest part, is that we are doing it to ourselves. The real risk is the unpredictability and the chaos change in the weather systems. I expect it to get worse before it gets better.

Tonight, the ponehs and peeps are all safe under cover, dry and fed. The clean up on the barn will continue tomorrow and the leaks in the roof that contributed to the water inside the walls will be addressed. We will talk about drainage and what we can do to help mitigate the mud. And some few of us might look out at the sky and wonder what we will do when the storms intensify, when the hail gets bigger, the rain comes down heavier, or there is no rain at all.