Chestnuts, elms, hemlocks, and now ashes. The list of species decimated by introduced diseases in the Eastern forests is extensive. Our hemlock species are thankfully mostly immune to the adelgid. They still get infested, but they typically fight it off and survive, much like Asian hemlock species do. There are no native hemlock adilgids on the West Coast, but it is thought that at one time there were, given how our species have defense mechanisms for these pests. Sadly the Eastern and Carolina hemlocks are not so fortunate.

dang its actually raining, was doing some some compliance training for work and thought I heard rain on the roof even though I have my headset on. Sure enough its raining

Not a surprise. That year was astoundingly dry. It stayed bone-dry (with heat waves, and smoky spells) until the latter half of the month. Then there was snow and a hard freeze in early November IMBY. Lawns went from brown and baked dry to brown and frozen. There was none of the normal fall green-up that year. Most depressing.

If it means also being an anti-capitalist, yes. Otherwise, no.

There is definitely a warm pool greater than global SSTA. The CPC calculates it as Bering Strait/GOA cold vs central-N. Pacific warm, and their index is around -3. That's 50/50 warm and cold areas. -3 is #2 lowest all time for October right now. Water is denser and etc etc. But the PDO has been the #1 most verified forecasting tool for the last 4 Winter's.. When it's so strong and persistent, something is happening that is leading to X result. There are like a million different answers of what it could be. I've seen many people describe atmospheric circulation, and not be able to beat out the PDO in seasonal forecasting.