AND THEN I WROTE ...

Duh!
The experts last week declared the drought in Iowa officially over.
Those of us in northeast Iowa sort of knew that, didn't we? In fact, we probably came to that conclusion about a month ago. Right after the first of a series of flood warnings was issued for the area. Since then, it has rained more days than it has not, and some of those rains were not gentle soakers, but wind-driven cloudbursts providing an inch or two or three or more water.
Those were our first clues that perhaps the weather forecasters were wrong when they said in early spring that the months of June, July and August would be bone dry in the middlewest. They as much as hinted it would not even be worthwhile to plant a crop, since it would all be burned away by drought by the middle of July or early August.
Instead, we have had a rain forest atmosphere.
Today's long range (five days) forecast says we might have a day without rain, but it will rain again tonight and tomorrow, "possibly heavy" once again. Then, a day off from rain, followed by a three-day weekend of rain, possibly heavy, every day. Several more inches of drought relief.
Personally, I blame the bad information on Al Gore. Didn't he invent weather, too? After the Internet?
Gore did write a scare book about the environment, and it would be helpful for his campaign if the facts proved his hypotheses correct.
Actually, he talks more about global warming than drought.
But recent articles have surfaced to prove that the government has never gotten that right, either. The federal government has declared global warming to be a crisis in the making. However, writers doing their research have come up with governmental predictions made a quarter century ago, carried by all the major news media, warning of a new ice age. Global cooling, if you will.
Now, even those dire predictions about warming are estimating a degree per century on average. Which would be serious enough, if true. But anyone with any common sense about science would find it incredulous that the government could have gone from predictions of too cold to too warm in 30 years!
The only apparent answer is that scientists are wrong today or were wrong a few years back. Or that someone is intentionally manipulating the data to make a point. Back to Gore again?
The real truth is that scientists don't know and can't confidently predict with any degree of success. Man's efforts are indeed puny when trying to figure out Nature's scheme of things.
Weather forecasters recently announced they were working on a sophisticated system which should be able to predict the Earth's weather up to a year in advance. This from the same guys who can't make an accurate five-day prediction today. Or who are often wrong in the morning about what the weather is going to do in the afternoon. My grandmother could have wet a finger and held it up to the wind and done as well at predicting.
But we tend to believe the forecasters, because they have technical equipment we as individuals do not possess. And unlike years ago, they can show us the isobars and radar images and draw little arrows to show which way things are moving. Trouble is, the Great Mover in the meantime often changes things.
Maybe the government's predictions gone wrong are best evidence that the long view is correct. With our tropical rain forest conditions this summer, perhaps farmers should be considering bananas or mangoes or plantains for future crop seasons here in Iowa.
Meanwhile, I had best get this column done and delivered to the office. Since the forecast for this afternoon calls for clear skies, there is almost certainly going to be a storm!