With the passing of the summer solstice, we’re into weather predicting season again. The usual question of when will the heat of summer, drought, and fire season arrive. NOAA, as always, has predictions. This summer is expected to by drier and hotter than average. Back in 2021, we found ourselves looking at record highs towards the end of June. By comparison, this year has still been relatively mind.
Climate in the Past 20,000 Years
The question is not whether human activities have altered the planet’s climate. The map below, gives a pretty decent interpretation of how wintry the planet looked 20,000 years ago – and glancing at my own little part of Montana shows a spot much less suitable for agriculture or gardening. In high school, I heard of the cyclic nature of ice ages – the explanations weren’t there, but evidence of the cycles was apparent. History.com provides this commentary: “There have been at least five significant ice ages in Earth’s history, with approximately a dozen epochs of glacial expansion occurring in the past…
Thermometers and Weather
Sir Thomas Allbutt invented the medical thermometer in 1867. The first attempts to use medical thermometers to analyze weather (that I have found) were physicians with Crook’s 1876 campaign following the Little Bighorn. Decent instruments, but misused – as I recall they were reporting sub-zero temperatures in September. The first use of a thermometer in Montana was with the Lewis & Clark expedition – they recorded temperatures daily until September of 1805, when the last of their three thermometers broke. Around 1900, thermometers started moving into homes and yards – usually advertising thermometers. By 1920, measuring the day’s temperature became…
The Weatherman Said
It looks like we’re into some near record or even record breaking high temperatures. Kalispell’s record high was 105 degrees back in 1961. I probably handled that by heading into the creek. Still, that’s fairly gentle, compared to Glendive in 1893, or Medicine Lake in 1937 – both of which saw 117 degrees. As I look at the predictions for the next few days, my mind goes back to the concept of growing degree days, and then to the temperature limits on plant growth. Corn, for example, doesn’t grow unless the temperature is at least 50 degrees, and anything over…
Trego's Mountain Ear 
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