Last month, we had a couple of days in which the temperature went from 27 C to 10 C.
We also had a tornado touch down not far from here. We rarely used to get violent storms, but not long ago, everything was nice and calm and all of a sudden, we had wind gusts up to 100 kilometres per hour in North Calgary. Trees were getting uprooted and cars were getting smashed.
Down here in the Bow Valley, storms will circle and then come back on you. It starts, it hits, goes away and then the wind changes and it comes back. It can be all over the map and there’s always a risk of flooding. We’ve had some of our poplars’ huge branches fall because it gets so violent now.
Extreme is the key word in weather these days. These types of events used to take place every 10 years. Now, it’s been happening each of the last 10 years. It’s much more common.
I don’t read up a lot on global warming, but I do know from the perspective of running a business that depends on weather that things are changing. You try to budget and prepare for it, but you might as well use a dartboard anymore.
If you get a run of bad weather and people aren’t playing, then you get some good weather, everyone wants out on the course. Then, you’re facing a situation in which not everyone can get the times they want and that leads to frustration for your members.
It’s understandable.
They’ve paid their memberships and they know how many rounds they have to get in to make it work, so when they’re not getting that, frustration sets in.
It’s not our fault either. You can only put so many people on the golf course at any one time.
The first consideration, however, is safety and one positive in all of this extreme weather is the technology we have available today to track storms and get people to safety when we know one is coming. I’m not standing out on the hill with my eyes to the sky.
If only we could find technology to lessen their impact.
