Art Douglas first predicted the weather at the Spokane Ag Show during the winter of 1977-1978.

He will speak at this year’s show Feb. 4 at 9 a.m.

A professor emeritus in atmospheric sciences at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., he’s been a popular speaker at the show ever since.

“I come back, number one, because I’m always invited back,” Douglas told the Capital Press. “For me, the people are not only friendly, but they’re very interested in weather and how it impacts their work there.”

He’s missed a few shows over the years, due to being on sabbatical in Mexico or while teaching in the Dominican Republic.

“I don’t think you could ask for a more beautiful location than Spokane,” he said.

Douglas was also the long-range forecaster for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s CattleFax from 1977 until his retirement in 2021.

Douglas uses 19 components to develop his forecasts for Northwest grain farmers.

“I have a real plant interest,” he said. “The growing conditions are really important to me.”

Climate change

Douglas remembers concerns when he was a high school student about the planet entering a new Ice Age.

Concerns about global warming began to emerge in the early 1980s and the 1990s.

In November, Douglas noted that he is finding that current weather patterns are most comparable to more recent years, 1998 or later.

“The climate has definitely changed,” he said. “The idea of the Pacific decadal oscillation or the Atlantic decadal oscillation, it’s still there, but the cold phase of it is just not being reached. Every time we go to the warm phase, it’s super warm, then we just go back to normal.”

It reflects an urgency to Douglas that the climate is not able to cool down to below normal again.

“It’s a yin and yang thing, but now the yin is winning and the yang is out the door,” he said.