Rainstorm (Image credit: CFJC)

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Rain, rain, go away, come again another day… or not

Jun 4, 2022 | 6:46 AM

Sometimes an April day will suddenly bring showers Rain to grow the flowers for her first bouquet. — Lyrics from hit song by Pat Boone, 1957.

STARING OUT THE WINDOW, watching the rain pelt down as the thunder rumbles and storm clouds pass overhead, I can’t help but think about Pat Boone’s song.

He was a young heartthrob in the ‘50s; some say he had one of the best voices of any crooner there ever was. He had hits with songs like Love Letters in the Sand, Ain’t That a Shame and When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano.

But none was bigger than April Love. Those showers he sang about were the real thing. April was the rainy month. It rained and rained, guaranteed, then dried out in May and warmed up nicely in June. As the decades went by, though, the rain shifted from April to May, then to May and June.

Back in the ‘50s, nobody ever expected June to be a season of thunder showers and lightning storms. That’s climate change for you. And yet, the weather folks tell us May was actually comparatively dry this year in our neck of the woods. That may be, but it was crappy nonetheless, and May has generally become a writeoff.

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April is now one of the driest months of the year, June the wettest (notwithstanding last year’s late-month heat dome). The good news is, we likely won’t get a heat dome in June, and the rain should keep things under control in the forests. Until July, that is, when it’s expected we’re going to be in for some heat, as usual.

In short, the weather has gone all to hell. Which confirms my long-held belief that we’re all doomed. This nutty weather is a big problem. Aside from floods and wildfires, the world in general is getting out of sync. The trees and flowers don’t know when to bloom. Sea levels rise, droughts become more common, glaciers are melting. Wildlife species are going extinct because they can’t adapt.

Weather-related disasters have progressively increased since Pat Boone warbled about the joys of April. And that’s just the big-picture stuff. Wildfires (in the Kamloops Fire Centre, three of the past five years have been worst evers) drive up our house insurance. Hydro bills go up. Food gets more expensive.

Working outdoors becomes tougher. Taxes go up as cities spend on preventive measures against floods and fires. A menu of health concerns emerges, from allergies to respiratory diseases. Death rates rise.

These days, the dog is always soaking wet, and when are we supposed to mow the lawn? Yet, surprisingly, only about half of the population — depending on the poll — believes climate change affects them directly. It’s not that people don’t believe something is happening out there, it’s just that they don’t think it has anything to do with them.

They don’t understand it and expect whatever is going on will go away. Then there are the deniers, the ones who are confident it’s all just part of the natural way of things. Mom Nature will sort things out; climate-change types are just being alarmist. Fake news. And let’s not forget those who actually believe climate change is a good thing.

A warmer Canada will be a much nicer place to live, they reason. Longer growing seasons, more time at the beach and on the golf course, and all that. I’m a bit of a pessimist. I’m not confident we’ll be able to stop it before the Earth becomes uninhabitable.

Aliens will send space probes to try to figure out if there was ever life here. The general level of concern is gradually increasing but not fast enough. So, I look out the window as the river rises and the wind blows, and am reminded that, not only is climate change real, but it’s hitting us big-time right here in the Tournament Capital. Pat Boone’s song needs a re-write.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.