Extending the Season: Fun in the Sun May–October?
Isn’t it wonderful? This past Sunday, we pushed the clocks forward an hour, welcoming spring and bright sunshine to our world here in the Hamptons. So put on suntan lotion, sandals, shorts and a T-shirt, some ribbons in your hair and some cool shades over your eyes, blast out your favorite pop music and get out there into the snowstorm and do a little happy jig.
We have the results for February. February just set a new record for being the coldest month ever recorded in the history of weather tracking (since 1984) on eastern Long Island. It’s also the coldest month in deviating from the norm in the history of weather tracking here. Normal temperature average for February is 33° (low 26, high 40). Our February just past averaged 17° (low 7°, high 27°). This is a variation from the norm of 16 degrees. It was like Nome, Alaska out there. Fargo, North Dakota out there. It is a month we’d like to forget. And we’d also like to forget the almost 4 feet of snow that we had in total—if you add in the last few days of January. We’d like to forget it all.
The problem is that God does not forget. In the month of February, we fell behind 16 degrees from what it’s supposed to be. God knows that at the end of the year, everything has got to tally up so that the average temperature for the whole year is what it should be. Indeed, considering the whole year, the average temperature for the year should be up a degree from normal. Global warming is in effect. So we’re not 16 degrees behind for February, we are 17.
And so, the question arising is this: In which month coming up—March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November or December—is this 17 degree deficit to be made up?
If it took place in July, it would be a disaster. July’s average temperature is supposed to be 74°. If the 17 degrees got added back in that month—and don’t think this is some kind of joke, because remember it went into deficit by this amount in just one month—the average temperature would be 91°. Yes, to do that we’d have to have 100° days. We’d also have to have 110° days and even a few 120° days. And August is no better. No, we do not want to make up this 17-degree deficit in either July or August.
What I propose is that we spread out the making up of this deficit during four separate months. Have three months when the temperature is up by 4 degrees, and then one month when it is up by 5 degrees. (There’s that rascally global warming degree again.)
And obviously, taking the bull by the horns and making lemonade out of lemons, those four months should be May and June, and then September and October. Think of it. We would not have just a two-month long summer resort season. We’d have it six months long.
We’d have the balmy summer months of April and October, when you think you might go swimming but then again maybe not. Think Amelia Island, Florida weather. Good for tennis and golf, good for driving around with the top down. Good for resort wear.
Then we’d have the beautiful summer resort season, four months long, June, July, August and September, when the temperatures averaged about 65° at night and 85° during the day. What wonderful days they are. We’d prop up June and September to have those temperatures. And we’d have July and August like we always do.
To make this happen, we have to pray. God likes prayer. He’s indicated his approval of such behavior throughout the ages, and often he makes what’s prayed for true.
Let’s give it a shot.