It's almost like the climate changed.

 Being the type to overuse into exhaustion a line that was only mediocre at best to begin, that has been my pat reply the past couple years anytime someone comments on startling weather. I say it with an air of jest, and I am hoping for a chuckle, which it usually receives, but then, hopefully with some good natured charm, I follow the laugh by pointing out, alas, if only it was a laughing matter.

Yes, I know weather and climate are not the same, but the climate does affect weather TRENDS, and those are noticeably different, even without a spread of data. One place I notice the change is in weather forecasting. For years, and then a few more years, I didn't pay much heed to weather predictions. I believed more in looking out a window, maybe even stepping outside, and then deciding what activity to do. No, I wasn't a big fan of advance planning either.

Call it age, or even an accuracy competition between meteorology and the feelings in "old bones", but I did begin, maybe a decade ago, to at least look at weather forecasts with some interest. Maybe I'd started to lose some faith in the comfort range of my superior waterproof, breathable technology, know by its common name, as skin!

Forecasts were never exceptionally accurate, but they were maybe amazingly accurate when considering how complex a system they attempt to predict. There must be at least a century of data going into forecasting the weather, but now there's a problem. That's the data for an old climate, and it seems we have a new one. Used to be, a three day forecast was pretty good and 24 hours was super solid. Now, the models based on old data no longer quite match current reality.

Yesterday, the forecast predicted rain for that day and into last night, but a 100% dry ride for me starting at 7am to head to a pediatrist appointment. Yes, I rode a very wet ride, possibly even a downpour, and it didn't lessen until I was half way home AFTER the appointment. Good thing I like water. After all, I'm more than 90% made of the stuff! And yes, I had fun riding in the wet, likely especially since it was a balmy 60 degrees at first light in this second half of December. It's almost like the---oh, never mind.