Lately I often wonder if the climate really hasn’t changed. Don’t you remember that at this time of year, years ago, it was colder? I don’t want to draw any conclusions from this: I just note that for the past few years I have been using really heavy running clothing for a few weeks a year, usually when I run in the mountains or when it snows in the plains.
Years ago-now more than 10 years ago-there were even “Zero degree” pants for really cold climates. Maybe they still exist, I don’t know. I wouldn’t dream of going running there anymore because they would be way too much for the temperatures you encounter.
Mine is a geographically limited point of view: I live in the plains and am used to harsh winters and unbearable summers. Or maybe I should say “used to”: today I would describe the weather over the year as “Mild in winter and very hot in summer.”
We talk about perceptions, it is true. And, again, we are also talking about a large but limited geographical area: in other words, not everyone lives in this condition. Very true: but many do. The climate in Milan is no different, nor is the climate in Bologna or Florence.
Something has changed
Net of the fact that climate is objectively describable (winds, temperatures, air humidity, etc.) and individually perceived, it is undeniable that something has changed in recent years. I have not worn gloves for many years. It is true that I used to use them often for biking and nowadays more like walking (or running), but certain small details like these have always given me a measure of the amount of cold I (was) subjected to.
Similarly for winter running apparel: subject to individual perceptions of warm and cold (which can vary so much) I now use *winter* clothing a few months out of the year, perhaps no more than a couple of months.
If I make these speeches, it is not to draw global conclusions from them-I have neither the expertise nor the presumption. For so many who have the same perception as me, I am sure, there are many more who instead are colder than they used to be or for whom everything is the same.
Yet
The human mind is a wonderful and largely unknown machine. Inside the mind is memory. Our relationship with the weather is also based on our memories of it: that time I ran and it was very cold, exactly how cold was it? And how many years has it been since I felt that cold?
You will understand that there is very little science in this approach. By the way, we are very prone to confusion between weather e climate, which are two completely different things: weather is the timely and daily (or at least for limited periods) observation of the weather, climate is the general one, which assesses changes over time frames much wider than 24 hours, up to many years.
Temperature memory works a bit in two ways: like the weather when, for example, it remembers a very hot or very cold day, and like the climate when it thinks back to the winter of a year ago or 10 years ago. The weather also records spikes (positive or negative) that may mean nothing climatically (one day when it is very hot out of 364 when the temperature is aligned with annual averages does not shift anything in general terms) while the climate has less sudden shifts. Yet it is undeniable that it is not just perception (I repeat: limited to certain areas, it may be that others have not seen the weather change one iota in recent decades): the winters are less harsh, the summers warm, certainly warmer than years ago.
They wisely call it “climate change.” No longer “Global Warming” as it was years ago. “Climate change” gives no indication for better or worse-it does not say that the Earth is warmer or cooler, only that the global climate has changed or is changing.
In short, it may be that we continue and will continue to remember runs made on very cold days. There will be more of them, all right. Yet climatically this is happening much less uniformly or increasingly punctually: in short, there are very cold days but not prolonged periods that are equally cold.
Perception? Reality? What do you think? Do you have the same impression? Let us know in the comments!
(Photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash)