In any place I've ever lived or travelled, a discussion of the weather seems the universal opener for most conversations. The fine gradations of temperature, wind, or sun's brightness spawn endless detailed commentary. Vermont seems unique with its own Nor'easters or the Montreal Express. And we comment with a grin about Vermont's fourth season, the Mud Season, when our iconic gravel roads turn to pudding. Given today's increasingly unusual year round weather, the time has come to proclaim a fifth season for the Brave Little State. And its name? The Climate Change Season, reflecting the origin of the growing, new class of weather disruptions throughout the year.
Throughout history the extreme weather events in Vermont are seared in lore with a unique name and date. One finds the Year Without a Summer in 1816, following the gigantic 1815 eruption Mt. Tambora in SE Asia. Tambora's atmospheric particulates and aerosols blocked the summer sun causing crop failures starving millions throughout the entire Northern Hemisphere. The state's chickens and livestock died from lack of gain and hay. Vermont farm families survived eating hedgehogs, green nettles, and whatever grain might have survived a summer season fraught with frosts and snow. More than a century later Vermont endured the Flood of 1927, killing dozens, destroying over seven hundred bridges.
— Erik Esselstyn
Maybe we should call the fifth season the “ What’s Next Season” ! Or these days we seem to need to shorten things down and do capitol letters for everything ,(boondoggling old folks like me.) ie. The WNS season ! Celina mum. PS . Maybe it’s a good way to describe our US government! “ WNS USA” Uhg.