Wisconsin’s climate may resemble that of Missouri in 2055. That’s the headline coming from the Journal-Sentinel, the Milwaukee based paper out of Wisconsin. I grew up there so I had to read and see what was going on with that. 2055? I mean, that’s only 46 years away. I would still be alive, though admittedly old (and hopefully retired, but the way things are for writers, ehhhh….).

Point being, that’s a major shift in my lifetime. The center of Wisconsin is around about 44 degrees latitude. The center of Missouri is about 38 degrees. That’s a six degree difference on the latitude scale- around 400 miles.

I live in California now and just about the only things people I meet know about Wisconsin is cheese and cold (sometimes I even have to refer to it as the state above Chicago so that people will have some idea where it is). Needless to say, Missouri is not renowned for the cold.
Could it be that within our lifetimes that places will begin to have the weather more common to areas 400 miles south? Of course with the Earth’s curve the change would not be uniform, but based purely on the distance, what would those changes mean for other places?

Well, it would make Oregon like San Francisco (or Napa, which means if you are a wine speculator it’s time to start looking around Bend…). It would make the Southwest’s Four Corners region like Wyoming or Montana. It would make Vermont like Virginia.

Of course, it’s not that simple, but mind-wrenching to think about.

The modeling the scientists did represents a move in both scientific and political spheres toward adapting to and dealing with climate change, now being called climate shift in some circles. Rather than focusing on how to slow or stop rising temperatures, it is time to admit that what we can do is keep the changes to a minimum (maybe) and start to deal with how to live in this changing climate- I’m sorry, shifting climate.

"I think you get worried when you don't know how much change will occur, and you don't have a plan for what you are going to do when it does occur. This data tell us how much change to expect, so I think that it addresses this sense of alarm,” Dan Vimont, assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, told the Journal-Sentinel.

Agreed. If you’re going camping you want to know if there’s rain predicted or not, right? Same thing going on here.

I had to dream about the silver lining, though, and what it could be for me in my golden years- could it be that I can retire to Wisconsin in a Lake Michigan coast house I buy up now while prices are still low?

But before I get ahead of myself, Chris Kucharik, an assistant professor of agronomy and environmental sciences, reminds us:

"Wisconsin hasn't necessarily gotten hotter, it's getting less cold."

Oh, yeah. 11 degrees warmer than below zero is still only like 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Maybe those coastal property dreams are a bit premature.