Welcome to Wilder Weather!

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Wilder Weather is forthcoming in 2025 from the South Dakota Historical Society Press! Stay tuned for release dates, preorder information, in-person readings and signings, and more! Wilder Weather brings insight into how to protect all that you cherish from the weather and climate around you if you pay attention as closely as Laura Ingalls Wilder did.

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Everybody likes to talk about the weather! If you’re here, you probably do, too. As it turns out, so did Laura Ingalls Wilder. Weather and climate are prominent in her Little House book series, Missouri Ruralist articles, and letters to daughter Rose Wilder Lane.

We all have the weather in common - you, me, Mrs. Wilder, and people all around you.

Mrs. Wilder recalled with precision and accuracy the date of the October blizzard that ushered in the Long Winter, the chinook that pushed it away, and many details of the brutal winter between. She recounted the grasshopper (Rocky Mountain locust) infestation in the 1870s that devoured the Ingalls family’s fortunes in Minnesota, bitter cold temperatures on a sled ride home from a week of teaching with future husband Almanzo Wilder, and a terrifying close encounter with a three-funneled tornado - all of which are documented in other records. The memories that impacted her and her family the most were the ones that she wrote later with vivid details.

People like to share their stories about big weather events that impacted them - the big tornado that made a near miss, the big snowstorm that brought drifts up to the eaves, the big flood that isolated them at home for days at a time. I bet you’re thinking of a big weather event from your life as you read this now! If you like to talk about those big events, share them with your neighbors or family members who endured it alongside you, and tell the stories of survival to others, you have found the right newsletter.

Sometimes, reliving the catastrophes of the past bring up feelings and memories that are not so pleasant - anxiety and stress about what could have been, worries about the event happening again. We have space for you here, too, to learn more about protecting yourself, your loved ones, your home, your community.

As much as everybody likes to talk about the weather, not as many like to talk about climate. There, I said it. Climate. Whew! It’s a scary word to a lot of people, for a lot of reasons. Really, climate is just the sum and averages of weather collected over long periods of time. It’s the weather of Mrs. Wilder’s world, compared to ours now, compared to the weather our children and grandchildren will see in their adulthoods. Climate is the bigger patterns that nudge our daily weather.

Maybe you’re not so sure about this whole climate thing and why it matters, or if climate change is worth all the fuss. Maybe you’ve put it off as something you’ll worry about another day, when today’s needs are met. Maybe you’re worried and concerned about the future and want to ease your anxiety, just as those who have been rattled by past weather catastrophes want to ease their anxiety. In this newsletter, all are welcome. We can all meet and connect with each other as we look at the weather of the past, present, and future.

Paying attention to the weather and climate around us is how we protect our families and loved ones, our homes and neighborhoods, our backyards and all of the plants, animals, and soils they contain. Paying attention over time makes you part of the story, part of the web of observers recording our weather. You empower yourself to protect what you cherish.

I am so glad you’re here to join the conversation! Please email, comment, or message me with your questions about weather and climate. If you have questions about weather from the Little House books, from years past, from right here and now, or in the future, I am here to answer them.

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