The View From Here
Climate is enormous.
We talk about El Niño developing thousands of miles away in the tropical Pacific, ocean currents shifting in the Atlantic, global average temperatures, jet streams, atmospheric circulation, and changes measured across decades.
I experience it on six acres in Missouri.
This year, I experience it in grass.
We've had enough rain that keeping my two elderly, retired horses on pasture has been much easier than it can be during a dry Missouri summer. They're both over 21 now and, professionally speaking, mostly serve as yard ornaments. If the pasture keeps growing, they keep grazing, and I don't have to start dipping into hay as early.
That matters.
Hay turns precipitation into something you can stack in a barn. A good growing season affects what is available for farmers to cut, what I'll be able to buy later, what it costs, and how worried I'll be when the pasture finally stops growing.
So even while I'm enjoying this summer's grass, part of my brain is already thinking about winter.
But the rain has brought other things with it.
There have been fireflies all over my yard this summer, which I love.
There have also been ticks and fleas everywhere, which I emphatically do not.
And that contradiction is part of what I think gets lost when we talk about climate change.
We experience enormous planetary systems through ridiculously ordinary things.
Whether the grass is growing.
Whether the creek has water in it.
Whether you can walk through your own yard without acquiring a tick.
Whether there are fireflies blinking over the field after dark.
Whether the hay guy had a good year.
Whether February-you will be grateful for what August-you managed to prepare.
None of those things, by itself, tells us what the global climate is doing. One rainy summer in Missouri doesn't prove climate change, and one dry summer wouldn't disprove it.
Weather is what happened outside my window today.
Climate is the pattern that tells us how likely different kinds of days are to happen in the first place.
And right now, some of the systems influencing those odds are doing interesting things.
Want to follow me down this rabbit hole?
If you want to dig deeper into the science behind my rambling, these are some good places to start:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2022). Missouri state climate summary. https://statesummaries.ncics.org/chapter/mo/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate Prediction Center. (2026). El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) diagnostic discussion. https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. (n.d.). How you can help fireflies. https://www.xerces.org/endangered-species/fireflies/how-you-can-help
University of Missouri Extension. (2013). Ticks and tick-borne diseases. https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/ipm1032
University of Missouri Extension. (2025). Maximizing summer grazing in Missouri. https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g4167 Companion Animal Parasite Council. (2017). Fleas. https://capcvet.org/guidelines/fleas/
For the deeper end of the rabbit hole: Todd, R. E., et al. (2024). Warming and lateral shift of the Gulf Stream from in situ observations since 2001. Nature Climate Change, 14, 122–127. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01835-w