“What might it mean for an entire country or society or civilization to walk together, hand in hand, through stages of grief and loss and depression and mourning, at the same time?”
– Eric Holthaus in The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What’s Possible in the Age of Warming

Back in 2017 the Weather Channel published a chart showing when cities received their average first snow with accumulation for the season. I went off in search of this information because I could not tell if I was remembering something wrong. Sure, there were sometimes flurries in Octobers past, and there was that one time we got dumped on in 2011. But what I recalled was having some snowfall, even just a few inches, by or around Thanksgiving. It would begin beautifully. There would be a few more rounds in December. Around mid-January, the novelty might have worn off, helped by ice storms or slushiness. There would be more in February. Maybe one last storm in early March. This is how I thought it worked, but anything that begins feeling like nostalgia should be investigated carefully.

The chart confirmed at least part of this, though: November 28 was, six years ago anyway, the date for the average first accumulating snow in Hartford. I wasn’t misremembering Thanksgiving travel plans being treated as a question.

This season? It’s felt a lot like having a late period.

Those who have had this experience likely understand the sense of dread. You can go about your business and feel like everything is fine, and then pause long enough to remember that something is supposed to be happening and it isn’t.

It’s more than that though.

When the snow began falling last night, it was met with a fraction relief and a fraction of anticipatory grief.

We know that New England’s winters are being impacted by climate change. There’s no honest debate to be had about that. Now that it’s affecting the bottom line, those hold out deniers have probably even had to come to terms with this reality. To them I say welcome. This is exactly the time to take meaningful action. Forget about proving a point or being right. Focus on what needs to happen so that we aren’t photographing the season’s first snowfall a week into January, wondering if this is the last one with this kind of accumulation that we, collectively, will see in Connecticut.

Climate Possibilities is a series about climate mitigation, along with resilience, resistance, and restoration. It’s about human habitat preservation. It’s about loving nature and planet Earth, and demanding the kind of change that gives future generations the opportunity for vibrant lives. Doomers will be eaten alive, figuratively. All photographs are taken in Hartford, Connecticut unless stated otherwise.