Where Is My White Christmas?!

~When I interviewed for my company, over a year ago, I had to fly all the way up to Chicago for a couple of days. The night that I arrived, a blizzard hit the city, and when I woke up in my hotel, everything was white, freezing cold, and the snow was still coming down. It was very beautiful, but mostly because of the contrast with North Carolina. My home state, in mid-December, was still quite warm during the day, and the thrice-damned lawn grass was *still* growing!

At the end of my interview, the recruiter asked my what kind of location in Japan I'd prefer to live in. I said that I would prefer to live in a smaller city, as opposed to a metropolis like Tokyo or Osaka. I also said that I enjoyed winter sports such as skiing and would like to live in a colder area rather than a warmer one. I was hoping, you see, that I'd get to enjoy a snowy Christmas like there would be in Chicago, rather than the "hit the beach!" weather we were having in N.C.

Oh Nagaoka, how you have disappointed me! On Christmas day, an unexpected warm front moved in thanks to a high-pressure system over eastern China. As a result, today was so warm that I actually opened my balcony door to let in the air. I hung up my futons outside to air them out. I forewent my scarf and later took off my gloves while riding my bicycle. It was so accursedly bright and sunny that I actually wore my sunglasses, not to dim glare from the nonexistent snow, but from the setting sun over the mountains.

The warm weather has been causing a lot of problems for ski towns and resorts. Oh, sure, we'll probably be under two meters of snow in a few weeks, but it's the lost time that's hurting them. There simply won't be as many people over the course of the season who book rooms, rent equipment, and get lift tickets. Golf courses, on the other hand, are doing quite well!

Japanese meteorologists and climatologists are chalking this oddly mild winter up to El Niño, which you've probably heard of before. It's a shift in the tropical Pacific climate caused by a weakening of easterly trade winds and the resulting easterly shift in ocean currents towards South America. Initially, the term only referred to a weak, yearly mild period in the South American mid-winter, but over the past few decades, El Niño has become increasingly stronger and more frequent, and nobody is quite sure why.

What is known is that it's changing global weather patterns, changing where and when warm and cold weather occurs, and also shifting rainfall patterns. Is it a result of man-made global warming? Solar activity? Natural climate change? Who knows?

What matters is that here in Niigata prefecture, we've had a snowless Christmas, and I for one feel a bit cheated. I say, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!...please." ~Merii Kurisumasu!

[Check back in two weeks, when I beg for forgiveness and wish to stop, stop the snow!]