So, basically, go ski in the Kootenays.

The most important thing to remember about Cliff Mass and his opinions on climate change is that he sincerely, genuinely and completely believes that the greatest threat to the climate does not come from the fossil fuel industry, poor growth management policies or the ruling political party of the most powerful country on the planet refusing to admit to scientific consensus on this topic.

Cliff Mass genuinely -- GENUINELY -- believes the greatest threat to the climate is bad newspaper headlines and unnecessary hyperbole surrounding the issue. He has made this clear literally hundreds of times. He has called out The Stranger repeatedly for being "alarmist" but never -- EVER -- the Republican Party's intransigence on the very existence of the threat. He truly believes the greatest threat to our climate is alarmist newspaper headlines. This should be the baseline for any person attempting to understand his viewpoint.

Cliff Mass is a cranky, tired old drama queen whose legacy in the Northwest will be forever tarnished by his melodramatic temper tantrums. What a sad, sad old man. He probably should have stuck to weather forecasts but drama queens like him can't help themselves.

@2: Your unwarranted rage against Mass's opinions is most suspiciously weird considering all he said was the expects ski resorts to be open for the holidays.

"And while snowpack levels remain at historic lows, there’s no reason to think this winter is going to be as bad as the winter of 2014-15, when ski areas were barely open (and then the following summer saw the worst fire season in state history)."

You (and other Stranger writers) need to stop with the bullshit connection between winter snowpack and summer fires. This year was a great example of why they aren't connected. By late May, we were literally in a drought. The governor declared a drought emergency for about half the state. But the emergency was about water levels. It meant that fish were in danger, and crops would be as well. But, unlike the ramblings of many on this blog, that did not lead to a bad fire season. In fact, it was one of the mildest on record.

That's because fire has more to do with what happens in late Spring and Summer. Every year, the snow melts. It melts relatively early on the eastern parts of the Cascades, where we have the most fires. By July 1st, only the high elevation areas have snow. By August -- when we have most of the lightning -- the amount of water in the streams and lakes is meaningless when it comes to fires. If it has been really hot for a couple weeks, and we get a bunch of lightning, it doesn't matter what the snow pack was like.

Those are two, relatively independent things. The snow (or lack thereof) that we have now determines how much water we have late in the year. But the weather we have in late Spring and Summer determines whether we have a lot of fires or not.

Mass knows a lot about weather. He knows a fair amount about climate, and climate change. But like many informed people, he is overconfident. He is not an expert on climate change, and certainly isn't an expert on education. He also is not a military expert, an economist, nor a futurist. His optimism regarding climate change (along with his criticism of Seattle textbooks) is not based on any particular skill or training, while his comments about the weather are.

Stranger covering skiing now? Not advocating to close ski areas to build low income housing?

I was also surprised to see The Stranger post a ski article ... All I could think about while reading this was how debilitated I would be following a chair lift ride with Mr. Black. Could you imagine trying to get off a chair lift after sampling a few of his favorite strands or brews? I would say the same for Ms. Herzog, but her edible would kick in at the least opportune moment and leave me incapacitated on some random tree run.