Almost everyone you know has checked the weather forecast at least a few times, whether it be on the weather channel, apps or even the newspaper. For Indiana, it seems you can check the forecast one day and it’d be sunny with high temperatures, then suddenly it had dropped well below and now it’s raining. This makes predictions harder.
Most Hoosiers are used to it by now, even nonchalantly welcoming outsiders with the phrase “Welcome to Indiana weather.” It can cause quite a stir, though, when it comes to planning, school and work. No one really understands what causes the swings in weather, and it has left people frustrated and wanting answers.
Many researchers and meteorologists have concluded that the weather has many factors because we’re in the Midwest. From the Great Lake’s harsh coldness of Canada to the dryness and heat temperatures of Mexico and the oceanic areas to the East, we are trapped within different temperatures clashing together. These changes make the weather rather unpredictable or what locals call ‘bipolar.’
(Courtesy of The Weather Channel App)
Meteorologists have also mentioned that climate change could definitely play a role in unpredictable weather changes. The earth has been changing dramatically for the past few years due to our own doings. The temperatures have recently skyrocketed to drastic numbers both below and above regular. Although winters seem to stretch on for colder temperatures, summers have hit higher temperatures more than ever. Now what used to be the 70s to mid-80s degrees Fahrenheit, has now reached up to the high 80s and mid-90s degrees Fahrenheit. So with the knowledge that the Midwest already deals with unpredictable weather, climate change can add to that. Instead of having a change in a week that’s maybe a 10-degree difference, they now have a 20 to even a 30-degree change.
The Midwest has even gone as far as saying that we have over 11 seasons. Other than the official ones, there’s also fool’s spring, second winter, spring of deception, third winter, mud season, false fall and second summer. Although these aren’t actual seasons they are well known to the community of the midwest.
