Snow on Xmas day! Here? I’d be alarmed. Has never happened yet. If it did, it would be the kind of fluke that could only happen as global warming creates increasingly erratic and more extreme events.
Our sub-tropical climate will probably become more tropical. The cyclones of Summer usually rate from 1 to 3 in intensity, but are likely to start going up to categories 4 & 5. And unfortunately the regulators are behind – building codes have not been changed in anticipation. Roofs will fly off and worse.
A typical Xmas day in the Tweed Valley is hot, muggy, windless and sultry in the morning, with a massive thunderstorm dropping an inch or two of rain in the afternoon – heralding the start of our wet season.
Ari and I don’t celebrate Christmas. We think that since we are non-believers it would be hypocritical. He will ring his sister in Israel and wish her and the family a Happy Hanuka. Usually we spend the day quietly at home, avoiding drunks on the roads.
We like to invite a few friends who have no family to drop in for lunch on Dec 21st, Summer Solstice.
The nation goes a bit mad during the holiday season. Everyone is blitzed by advertising as businesses try to make Xmas into a guilt trip about generousity. Lonely people commit suicide. Drinkers double the toll of deaths and injuries on the roads.
This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at November 21, 2016 6:16 PM MST
Benedict Arnold 