There is a scene from the movie, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” that reminds me of our weather here in the Golden Triangle.
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table arrive at a village as the people there are in the process of condemning a woman as a witch.
Skeptical, King Arthur asks the mob why they believe the woman to be a witch.
“She turned me into a newt!” one villager shouts. Everyone turns their attention to the man, who looks perfectly normal. There is an awkward silence. Feeling the weight of everyone’s stares, he sheepishly mumbles, “It got better.”
At 6 a.m. Tuesday the temperature in Columbus was 26 degrees.
It got better.
Eight hours later, the temperature warmed to 55 degrees, a 29 degree change. From 6 a.m. Tuesday until 2 p.m. Wednesday – a 32-hour span – the temperature was expected to rise 47 degrees to 73.
We’ve been changing clothes more often than the cast of a Broadway musical.
In case you were wondering, the Guiness Book of World Records claims that the greatest 24-hour temperature change ever recorded happened in Loma, Montana on January 15, 1972 when the temperature rose from -54 degrees to 49 degrees, an astonishing 103-degree change.
It kind of reminds me of when I lived in northern California, where, in theory, a person could surf in the Pacific and snow ski at Lake Tahoe on the same day.
While we are nowhere near record-breaking territory, the shift in our temperature made me wonder what’s going on.
So I did what a lot of people are doing these days: I used an AI tool (in this case Google Gemini) to find sources that explain the dramatic shifts in temperature we sometimes see in our area.
Not to stray too far from the topic, but recent research indicates that AI is challenging Google as the search engines of choice. The findings revealed that AI chatbots often collect data from a much broader range of online sources than traditional search engines. In many cases, they accessed web pages far beyond Google’s first 1,000 results, sometimes even from domains that ranked outside the top one million websites. GPT-based systems often cited formal or verified sources, including encyclopedias and corporate sites, and avoided social media references. These models also used online data to reinforce existing internal knowledge rather than start from scratch.
Gemini provided a 2022 Mississippi Climate Study as a source that would help me understand what the heck is going on with this crazy weather here.
What I found out is that we are in a weather battleground, a North vs. South Climate Civil War.
The warm, peace-loving, God-fearin’ Gulf air from the South brings summer-like temperatures even in the late fall. Then, for no reason, the cold, rude, funny-talking, hot-tea-drinking Arctic air from the North suddenly attacks, causing sudden dramatic temperature drops. We go from sandals to boots in a matter of hours.
The boundary between these opposing forces is called a cold front (not to be confused as a Cold War) which sweeps through quickly, replacing warm Gulf air with cold Arctic air. The Gulf air pushes back, reclaims lost territory and the two sides battle back and forth for a while until winter wins the war – at least for a few months, anyway. Fear not: The South (air) will rise again!
Some people enjoy mild winters. Others enjoy the bracing cold that represents a true change of seasons.
What all of us should be able to agree on is that it should be one thing or the other instead of both at the same time.
For now, we are all collateral damage from this Civil War of Climate. The best we can do is be ready for either extreme. While it is time to bring the winter clothes out of storage, don’t put away those shorts and sandals just yet. The war rages on.
Take comfort, though.
It gets better.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 42 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
