Spent last week in the Smoky Mountains. Weather was warm(upper 80s), Monday and Tuesday with rain coming in on Wed. Thursday and Friday, cool and wet. Stopped in at the Welcome center Fri. after leaving Gatlinburg and one of the ladies was fussing because she was having to work and she had heard it was snowing on Clingman's Dome. Since we were headed to the top of the mountain, we said OK lets see if it really is. Sure nuff, just before we got to Newfound Gap the rain switched over to snow. This was lunch time, May 16, the temp at the welcome center was 58 degrees. The temp at Newfound Gap was 37 and 34 at Clingman's Dome. Here are a few pics of a southern novelty.
Larry

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Thanks for the story and those pictures. That is a beautiful area. I love to visit this time of year - or even a bit earlier when there is a hint of green but the foliage is not too dense and one can see back into the woods a ways as he drives along. Very pleasant in the springtime.

Not global warming anymore now it's climate change. Whatever it does out there carbon emissions will get the blame.

Hense the invention of "Climate Change"....necessary for just such a inconvenient weather anomaly!

Cool (and I mean "COOL") shots!

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paws for friendship

The hike to the top of Clingman's Dome is something every flatlander should do once in their life. Make sure you do it without sitting down and resting too. I never knew the human heart could beat so hard.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

Yes. Most likely we ARE hurting the world eco system with the high emissions of CO2.
BUT...NO matter what we do HERE in the USA. The Chinese and the Russians ,Eastern Europe, most of South America and Africa could care less.And will continue to pollute. Especially China.

If it is truly a natural cycle, we sure seem to be having quite a few BAD: storms, floods, droughts, heat/cold, tornados, earthquakes, tidal waves etc. I first heard of the greenhouse effect & the ozone layer in 1975 from people with Dr after their name. To think that dumping BILLIONS of tons of pollutants into our air/water/soil every year for over 100 years, with an anticipated dramatic increase when many Chinese/Pakistanis/Indians get cars, has ZERO effect on our planet? Smacks of "The world is flat", "smoking won't hurt your health", "evolution doesn't/never did exist" and "DENIAL aint just a river in Egypt". I'm NOT an Al Gore flag waver by any means, but doesn't "cause and effect", or "for every action there's an equal & opposite reaction" seem logical?

My friend's town was flooded with 20ft of water in an hour. It rained for a month straight, which has never happened, the river burst and most of Serbia and Bosnia are under 20ft of water.

While I don't follow Gore, like Hang noose said, 100 years of pollution will screw things up.

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Trouble is--is the "in thing" is to blame America and Americans for the Worlds problems.

This old planet has been spinnin' around for a little while now and it has gone through numerous ice ages, other shifts in global weather patterns, tectonic plate movement and volcano activity. If we view the history of the Earth in hundreds or even thousands of years it is hard to notice much difference but over periods of millions of years there have always been major changes and there will aways be. It's just a real long slow pendulum swing.

The contribution of mankind to what we all refer to now as GLOBAL WARMING plays a very small part in what the "experts" are prediction. We are just in one of those pendulum swings and if we get caught in another ice age or global melt or what ever it's just bad timing for us. Not much you can do about the "BIG PICTURE" other than to recognize it, and remain aware of it. Take things as they come.

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Real men love cats!

Even "green" energy is affecting the planet and weather in observable ways, we just don't know the inpact yet. Out here is the west wind farms are common. It is already know that the ground around them is warmer and drier and they disrupt the flow of winds. What the affects will be aren't known yet.

Sure a major asteroid hit could end life here as we know it. We have been hit before, that's proven. Defecating where we live can't be helping things, as I see it. You can't blame the air inversions over LA, Denver, etc. smothering us in OUR OWN pollution on Mother nature. When we only have 1 planet does it matter if country ABC PULLUTED 37%, and the US only 25%? In my lifetime I've seen waters so filthy you wouldn't dare go in, now they look pretty good. I'm not running around saying the sky is falling, but there is always room for improvement. It doesn't have to be big industry either. I don't smoke or own cats, yet I find cigarette butts & cat poop in my yard, I know I didn't put it there.

Cat poop wouldn't last long with my dogs around.

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Not in jail.

I just keep hearin' in my head,

JUST STEP AWAY FROM THIS THREAD!!!!!

So, how 'bout them mariners???

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Even older, even crankier....