Grape Weather

Genesis 8:22
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Some people worry about global warming, but if you think about it, we once had an Ice Age and now we don’t … so warming is not new. Other people argue we are merely seeing the normal cycles of heating and cooling.

Now the Pinot Noir grape may help settle this debate. The harvest date for this grape is so closely tied to weather that average annual temperatures can be determined from the date of the harvest. Harvest dates for the grape have been carefully recorded for centuries in Burgundy, France. These records have harvest dates for every harvest since 1370. Researchers were able to correlate these dates with average annual temperatures. The year 2003 was actually the warmest in over six centuries of data, while the second warmest years were in the 1520s and again in the 1650s. No modern warming cycle has yet lasted as long as those of 350 years ago. The findings also show that there was a long cold period that lasted from the 1750s until the 1970s.

After the Flood, God promised that the seasons, with their seed time and harvest, would not cease while the world is here. However, He did not promise that there wouldn’t be cycles. We can be comforted by the fact that He has promised that the weather will always allow crops to be grown.

Prayer:
Father, I thank You that You provide the weather we need to grow food. Help me to trust always that You will provide. Amen.

Notes:
Nature, Vol. 432, 18/11/04, pp. 289-290, “Grape ripening as a past climate indicator.”