Good Morning.

So, it's Memorial Day weekend, or the unofficial start of Summer. Too bad we never got a spring around these parts.

It was my feeling that since March 20, we've had no more than 5 days above fifty degrees around here, and certainly no more than 7, but checking the weather, it turns out my impressions are far off.


March around Boston normally averages 45 degrees; we were below that for the month at 41. We had an outlier day of 63 degrees.

April should see a warming trend, as we get school vacation, Patriot's Day, Marathon Monday, and of course Opening Day! Boston should average 56 degrees, and we suddenly bumped up to 59 for the month, with four days above 80, including a high of 86.

But then there's May - the trend has reversed. Reading the data, it appears we're averaging an incredible 42 degrees for the month, where it should be 66. We did have a bona-fide heat wave, three consecutive days over 90, but the rest of the weather has sucked ass.

Here we are on May 27, and I'm finally putting my garden in, some 3 weeks later than usual. I swear, a few days back around Mother's Day when I normally plant, I saw friggin' snowflakes in South Boston.

But of course, this all comes around to our differently-winged friends. We've been around in circles for what seems like decades now about this. I can tell you first-hand that my personal growing season now seems to be slipping every year, which in turn means it's shorter and my yields are going to be smaller.

Remember, I grow a couple of tomato plants on a typical urban postage-stamp garden. Just try to imagine extrapolating those minor changes onto industrial farming and the food supply. I remember not that long ago the talk of reaching a global climate "tipping point". It's always possible that it's already been reached.(really, how would we know?)

It's 2017. Javi is turning 16 this summer. When he's my age, it will be August 2051, just 34 years hence. I can only imagine what our little blue marble might look like then.