Oregon Coast Travel

As I watch Wunderground for their predictions on the upcoming Storm of the Millenium (OK, it hasn't been a long millenium yet), I'm putting this into the perspective of someone who has been in Florence for almost 21 years.

We had a big snowstorm the first year, which was the most in more than two decades. Then it went boring for about a decade, but I'm pretty sure we've seen more snow in our second decade in Florence than in the first. Last spring we had some extremely late snow (April) and we kept burning wood in the livingroom stove until almost the Fourth of July. Getting snow almost two weeks before Christmas is another astonishing prospect.

All this puts me in the global warming skeptic camp. This is not the same as being a denier. I really don't know whether there's an underlying trend and I'm seeing an anomaly on the cool side that will be overwhelmed by warming next year or the year after. But twenty years after the first alarms were sounded, there is precious little evidence.

The Oregon Coast "way of life" does face challenges. There's too much litter. People are losing their homes. Gorse and scotch broom are too prevalent. I feel the need to pick my battles and frankly, worrying about the still imperceptible rise in sea level isn't in my top 10 list.