Records are made to be broken...

 I'm a big fan of the printed newspaper so a year or two ago I was sad to make the switch to the online version of the Denver Post. Despite the newsroom being trimmed (gutted?) by it's owner MediaNews Group, Inc. I still rely on the venerable Post to fill in some of the information gaps my other sources of news don't seem to cover in-depth, at least on the local level. There is still a tactile pleasure about turning the physical page of a newspaper, or a book for that matter, that I really miss (with apologies to my beloved Kindle). I also miss the printed paper for that other time-honored use - starting a fire in the fireplace. Both the Denver Post and Leadville's Herald Democrat pages have helped keep me and mine warm on many a chilly winter's evening. No gas fireplace, as of yet, for me. I rue the day when I don't have the pleasure of heading out to the woodpile to split a couple of logs to feed the fireplace as the snow gently falls, and the temps start to plummet as the brittle sunlight fades behind the mountain tops.

Speaking of temperatures plummeting, its almost December as I write this and even with global warming we're heading for the coldest months of the year. The days are getting shorter, the nights longer and hibernating in front of a roaring fire with a good paper or book sounds like heaven to me. My better half and I were watching an excellent movie the other night about a place even colder than Colorado - Antarctica. Shot by Anthony Powell, Antarctica: A Year on Ice is a stunningly breathtaking documentary covering his ten years spent living and working at the bottom of the world. The photography is absolutely amazing and the characters who spend their time there, especially the "winter-overs", are as fascinating a bunch as any you'll find anywhere. 

I worked with a gentleman (hi, John) who had the enviable job of doing psychological assessments for Americans heading to The Ice to make sure they were compatible with frigid temps and no sunlight for months at a time. I remember a conversation where he told me if ever I was interested in heading south to let him know. Hindsight being 20/20 how I wish I had taken him up on that offer... 

Here's the Post's weather
article for December

On the last day of every month the Post has an article talking about the weather we can expect in the upcoming month. I think this article is a carryover from the long-gone Rocky Mountain News. I can remember as a kid growing up my dad used to cut the article out and tape it on the fridge so he could know, day by day, what the 'average' weather was supposed to be. Granted the T.V. weather forecasters of today are far nicer to look at and they certainly have some fancy graphics, but that little monthly synopsis was his bible and candidly he could generally forecast what was to come about as accurately as today's computer models and glitzy prognostications. 

I had never thought about it, but when I saw the article in today's Post, it started me to thinking, which is always a dangerous thing as I never know where it will lead. Anyway, two of the columns I always peruse are those showing the record high and low temps for the day. It struck me that I have been around for more than half of the records being set (14 record high and 21 record low years). So if my math is right, most of these records have been set in the last 63 years. Seven of the record highs have been set in the last 20 years along with eight of the lows. Now, I don't pretend to know what any of this means other than perhaps I've been hanging around this beautiful blue orb way too long. I do know it might have been nice to have been around back on December 5th, 1939 when the temperature was a balmy 79 degrees but not so  much on Christmas Eve 1876 when it was 25 below zero. December 1939 also saw Germany begin deporting Polish Jews as well as the premiere of Gone With the Wind, while December 1876 saw the United States Electoral College casts their votes in the disputed Presidential election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden with two sets of conflicting results returned to Congress on December 7th (Mr. Hayes eventually assumed office even though Mr. Tilden actually won the popular vote). I guess, just like the weather, what comes around goes around.

Photo By Jeffrey Beall 

Closer to home, Colorado became a State in 1876 while in 1939 we had a new Governor, Ralph Carr, take office. Mr. Carr would go on in 1942 to oppose, to the detriment of his political career, the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent during WWII once saying: 

"...the Japanese are protected by the same Constitution that protects us. An American citizen of Japanese descent has the same rights as any other citizen. ... If you harm them, you must first harm me. I was brought up in small towns where I knew the shame and dishonor of race hatred."

Another interesting statistic on the Post summary is the average windspeed - 8.4mph. It may mislead however, in that it fails miserably to forecast how the winds of change may really blow.