Time to 'smell the roses' for this climatologist

I'm not exactly riding into the "chemtrail sunset," but I'm going to cut my weekly workload to 50 hours or so from the current 70 hours plus per week. As Yogi Berra, the famed New York Yankee catcher once said, "when I see a fork in the road, I take it."

Sholeh Patrick said it all on Tuesday in her column. Working more than 55 hours a week, especially at my elderly age of 73, increases my stroke risk by a whopping 33 percent and my risk of a disabling heart attack by 13 percent.

I would have liked to reach at least 30 years of writing for the Coeur d'Alene Press, but I'll settle for the quarter of a century since May of 1990. It's been a blast!

I did see 50 years of writing weather columns on a weekly basis this past July. My first "Eye in the Sky" column for the Pittsburg, Calif., Post Dispatch debuted on July 25, 1965. In 1971, while doing TV weather at KCFW in Kalispell, Mont., I began writing a weekly column with the title changed slightly to "Eye in the Big Sky," which I wrote for the next 17 years. The Pilot is likewise a Hagadone newspaper, so I've chalked up some 44 years with the Hagadone chain.

I will still be operating my weather station on Player Drive. I will also feature my weekly "Weather Almanac" in the Press every Monday as well as my daily "Weather Gems" on the main weather page taken from nearly 64 years of weather scrapbooks. I will likewise be available at times for special weather articles and forecasts.

Meteorologist Randy Mann will be assuming the responsibilities for my column beginning Monday, Sept. 7. God be with you, Randy.

I intend to spend more time "fishing for men," not salmon, as the Lord commands. I firmly believe that I must spend more time in my so-called 'golden years' spreading the gospel, the 'good news' that Christ came to save the lost, not condemn them.

In answering the many questions from pastors, priests and lay people alike when I asked 107 churches to pray for rain last week, YES, I do believe in a pre-tribulation rapture of the saints. YES, there will be a seven-year tribulation period on earth dominated by an evil Anti-Christ. YES, Christ will return to earth setting his feet on the Mt. Of Olives in Jerusalem at the battle of Armageddon. YES, I do believe that there will be a 1000-year millennium of Christ on the throne of David. YES, best of all, we believers will spend eternity, billions of years with Christ in the New Jerusalem, where there will be no death, no sickness, no tears, only joy and peace forever and ever.

Why haven't I made these Bible prophecies public in a pronounced way before in my column? It's because it's a 'weather' column, not a 'religious' one.

If one wishes to read more detailed prophecies on what is and what's to come weatherwise and otherwise on this currently beleaguered planet of ours, just read my recent book, "Weather and Bible Prophecy" available at www.WeatherProphecy.com, plus two local bookstores, the Solar and the Well Read Moose.

My book is one of HOPE and LOVE. If it isn't in the Scriptures, it isn't in my book. It's entirely based on the truth of the Bible. I've made it my legacy.

I Peter 3:15 tells us, "to give a reason of the HOPE that's within us with meekness and respect (fear)." That's my goal for the remainder of my life.

I wish to thank both the publisher of the Coeur d'Alene Press, Jim Thompson, and its editor, Mike Patrick, for allowing me in my final 'Gems' article to give my strong Christian testimony. Thanks again for a wonderful 25 years! God bless you all!

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

As I wrote my final North Idaho article early Friday morning, the skies across the region were still smoky, but it was beginning to cloud up a bit from the west. The showers that we had been praying for were already showing up on radar along the West Coast. It was raining in both Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, at 8 a.m.

I spent an enjoyable evening on Thursday at the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo. At least 40 people told me that they were praying for rain, including the several pastors and the boys at the Knights of Columbus food court. I had one of the best double cheeseburgers of my entire life, great fair food! I likewise enjoyed talking with Chris and others at the Coeur d'Alene Press booth in the late afternoon.

I have 'good news' for the hundreds of people that have been praying earnestly for rain. Following an extremely hot and dry fire-ravaged summer of 2015, which included 'Sholeh Days' number 37 and 38 of 90 degree days or higher on Wednesday and Thursday, the first two days of the fair, I see a wetter and cooler, but not cold, autumn season ahead as the once very strong stationary high pressure ridge associated with El Nino finally breaks down in the tepid waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean.

In fact, both September and October may turn out to be actually wetter than normal in our part of the country, possibly saving a threatened hunting season in the currently extremely parched woods of North Idaho. But, I still see less snow this upcoming winter of 2015-16, particularly if the powerful El Nino holds on to life. Stay happy and healthy.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. Email sfharris@roadrunner.com