[Paddlewise] Global weirding

> It has been an interesting winter here in the far north. Unseasonably 
> warm and dry. Friday it was sunny and the temps hit 42.
   I have lived in Alaska for all but two of the last 23 years and this 
has been the warmest and dries winter I have ever seen. The two previous 
winters  we had 225  and 187 inches of snow. This winter we have had one 
snow of maybe 8 inches.  The mountains around us have less snow on them 
now then they did in mid June!
   I have watched the weather down south via the internet and at times 
we have been 20 -30 degrees warmer than our Mom's homes in West Virginia 
and a lot less snow.  Instead of global warming we are calling it global 
weirding!
   It has already had an effect on my winter sports. My snow shoes are 
poised by the door gathering dust while my kayak is drying out from 
today's paddle. I paddled up to a water fall normally coated in ice this 
time of year but today even in the shade there was no ice. In all this 
warm winter will have an effect on my summer kayak trips. The streams 
will have less water due to lower snow pack so some of the little 
streams will dry up making my daily search for fresh water harder. I 
prefer to camp by small stream as opposed to the bigger ones. The big 
ones often have large silty tidal flats and if the morning tide is a 
minus tide it makes for a lot of carrying. No fun.

have fun and be safe
Bob from Alaska (I think)
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