The Mothman Prophesy

Everyone will agree that this has been an odd summer. Wherever in the nation you go, you will hear how hot and dry it has been. More than half the counties in the United States report draught conditions. July was the hottest on record. August has been plagued by fires throughout the West including 750,000 acres burned here in Montana, much of it still burning. Meanwhile, the Mississippi River is so shallow part of it had to be closed to boat traffic.

Ahah -- signs of global warming???!!!

From my admittedly amateur comprehension of weather patterns on the planet, I do understand that those patterns have been going on for millennia. They occur in cycles. There are your 10,000 year patters, your 500 year patterns, your 50, 10 and 2year patterns. Like DUNE's plots within plots within plots, our weather occurs in patterns within patterns within patterns. They are normal aspects of a living earth. But Man exacerbates the system, speeding it up and making the extremes more aggravated. I take this as fact. Global warming is a normal part of earth's regular patterns, but Mankind's pollution and agriculture have accelerated the process. The end result could be a Dune-like Arrakis, or an ice planet suffering from the worst Ice Age ever. I'm betting on the ice planet. Either way, people are going to have a rougher go of it than they do today, and one extreme might precede the other: ice, then barren and dry, or visa versa.

All I know is that the moths didn't show up this year.

Let me explain. Last year, after the heaviest winter in our part of Montana in some time, the summer saw an inundation of moths. The moths particularly liked my workplace for the 24 hour a day lighting, and they literally covered the ground and the trash cans. There were so many that hundreds drowned inside the small troughs that hold windshield cleaner for our customers. People told me this was a normal part of the summer here in Lakeside.

This year, where there were thousands every day, I count a dozen or less. The moths did not come back.

I don't think it was because so many drowned last year. There were thousands who didn't for each one who did. I think it's a sign.

No, not a sign from God, although some of you could interpret it that way. I think it is a sign from nature that 2012 indeed is an abnormal year. This means that the abnormal summer will be followed by an abnormal winter. I feel THAT in my bones. What I think is going to happen is that there will be rainfall, plenty of it in fact, but that there will not be much snow. For the snow to stick it has to fall early and stay down. This way sunlight is reflected skyward off the white and the ground cools enough to keep the snow long enough for more to fall, and more falls because the whole atmosphere is cooler. Early snow and cool temperatures spell a long winter. The moths say this is not going to happen in 2012.

Instead, if there is an early snow, it will melt. Snow will not accumulate and the ground will never get that cold, at least not here. I prophesize that it will be a wet but mild winter, and 2013 will see a dry hot summer.

It will be interesting to see if I am right. If in August next year the Mighty Mississippi is down to a trickle, we'll have the answer. So let's all hope I'm wrong about this. Otherwise, 2012 may not be such an abnormal year after all, at least for the latest pattern.