“I learned to know the love of bare November days…” ~ Robert Frost
After an extraordinarily warm start to November, the weather has settled into old norms, and it feels right. Our extended forecast tells us northern New England won’t see 50 degrees again in 2025.
All our nights will be cold, and most days will hover in the 40s. Although that might not sound inviting to those of you in warmer climes, it feels like home to us. And it is a relief in a warming world.
Still, it’s not as cold as it used to be, which is reflected in our beleaguered moose population. Until ten years ago, November offered a handful of days in the 20s. That may make you shiver, but it served a purpose in wiping out many of the autumn deer ticks. Now, without those harsh cold snaps, the average New England moose carries tens of thousands of deer ticks.
I have nostalgia for the November of my youth. It was the quiet between the excitement of Halloween and Christmas. It felt like a month where nothing happened until Thanksgiving. It was a peaceful, almost boring time, a still time, the season when the arrival of the new LL Bean catalog was anticipated. It was Norman Rockwell, an occasional snowstorm, and the whale sounds of bubbles stuck under freezing ponds.
We often think of climate change in terms of warmer temperatures, violent hurricanes and tornados, floods, and droughts, but I cannot help but think of our moose.
Our local police used to see between 10 and 20 moose each week. Now, they are lucky to see a single moose. We used to see half a dozen each year, but most years, we no longer see any.
As much as I welcome this chilly weather, there's a part of me that longs for those ridiculously cold November days of the past. It was a time when the world felt more predictable.
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