Early Spring or Global Warming?

For the past three or four days, something interesting has been happening in my city. We had just experienced very warm weather in winter, a weather anomaly for most of us. For your information, the temperature reached 18 degrees on Monday 25 February, making it as the hottest February day ever measured in the Netherlands.

This warm weather was the opposite of what we experienced last year. On February 2018, we experienced a sudden temperature drop due to Siberian wind from Russia. After it ended, the temperature was stable, around 3-5 degrees Celsius, normal winter weather. This year? Man, I swore I went strolling downtown with a light jacket yesterday.

As much as I like the sudden warm weather in February, I could not help but to feel sad. Why? Because while people are enjoying the unexpected warmth doing outdoor activities, something darker is lurking around the corner: GLOBAL WARMING.

This ugly truth has been bugging me for the past few months. Looking back, we had the nastiest summer last year where the temperature reached up to 40 degrees Celsius. While people spent their time on the beach or sipping cold beers outdoors, I stayed inside because it was too warm for me. I could not sleep because my bedroom was too warm, so I slept on the living room because it was cooler. This temperature lasted until late September to my dismay. I mean, how can people be happy for extended summer while actually, the Earth is having a crisis?

A lot of people told me, “But you’re from Indonesia! I bet you’re used to this weather!” Let me tell you this: YES, I might come from a warm country, but what we have is different from the situation right now. We do not have dry weather, we have high humidity instead. Therefore, I cannot take the warmth because there is no wind, literally. In Indonesia, you can get a nice breeze by sitting under a tree.

So, what do you think? Are we experiencing early stages of global warming? What signs of global warming that you can feel in your country? If you live in Europe, did you experience the sudden warmth that just happened? Let me know in the comment section below!