As the planet warms, they argue, many areas will get hotter but some could get cooler.
Shivering over a dipnet on the Copper River on Sunday, well into the Alaska summer of the Martian winter, this climate change thing had a frigid look. You are not supposed to need to wear snowpacks on your feet in June to keep your toes from freezing while dipnetting.
You are not supposed to be locked in a 9 a.m. discussion about whether the warming rays of the sun will penetrate Wood Canyon before you go hypothermic.
You are not supposed to be dressed in several layers of fleece beneath wind gear with hoods pulled up, gloves and stocking hats on and still be cold.
It's summer for crying out loud!
Or at least it's supposed to be.
Or at least it used to be in Southcentral Alaska in late June.
This year, who knows?
On Tuesday morning with frost in Hillside yards, neighbor Tim Kelley was heading off to Seattle Creek west of Turnagain Pass to ski. Yes, you read that right, to ski.
Tim's a bit hard-core in the skiing department. He seemed to be almost rejoicing in the weather as he cheered "13 months of winter."
What a great beginning to the month of July.
The National Weather Service reported a low of 30 degrees in Gulkana in the Copper Basin to the north and east. The average low there for July 1 is 46 degrees. The previous record low was 35 degrees set back in 1970 when the climatologist mentioned the prospects of a new Ice Age.
Oh how things have changed in 30 years.
Or have they?
Maybe this latest sort of climate change is what triggers the formation of glaciers.
The Wrangell Mountains had fresh snow Sunday. Friends just back from a couple weeks hiking in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve reported they were snowed on.
Snow left from last winter still blocks the Resurrection Pass Trail in Chugach National Forest. And I have to pull on the fleece in order to sit on my southwest-facing deck and enjoy evening sunshine.
The summer sun, admittedly, feels as good and warm as ever. But the air, well, something is wrong with the air.
The air is cold. As soon as the sun disappears behind a cloud, the temperature starts falling as if it were nighttime in the desert.
A bright sun warming the deck one evening last week actually encouraged to me engage in the foolishness of pulling on shorts and a short-sleeved jersey for an evening mountain bike ride.
After 10 minutes, the sun went under a cloud, the wind started blowing, and I had to beat a retreat toward home to ward off hypothermia.
The weather this summer may even be worse than the skyrocketing price of fuel. After nine months of winter, we're entitled to a little respite, and then we get this?
Anchorage, according to National Weather Service records, didn't have a day that hit 70 in June, and the weather service record station is in a warm spot.
There were more days in the 50s than in the 60s. It's been so cold, the midnight-sun days even feel darker.
A friend says the swallows that normally nest in his bird house have given up trying to raise young. Too cold.
The fish are late returning to Alaska streams, or have decided not to come back at all. Too cold.
The Crow Pass Trail above Girdwood has so much snow you have to wonder if it will even melt out this year.
Coming back across Eureka Summit on the Richardson Highway a couple weeks ago with the fog thick and the clouds above thick enough to turn the dimness into night, the scene was more like late September than early June. If it had started snowing, it wouldn't have seemed surprising.
Hopefully it will improve. Hopefully this will be the month summer arrives.
Hopefully ... and shortly. We're already losing daylight and the warming rays of the sun that go along with it.
I like to ski as much as the next guy, but I'd prefer not to start in August.
Outdoors editor Craig Medred in an opinion columnist. Find him online at adn.com/contace/cmedred or call 257-4588.
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