Global warming right here at home

[hedgehog]

I live in Upstate New York's snow belt. Right now the extended forecast shows no snow for at least another two weeks. In past years, January has been the coldest month with occasional sub-zero temperatures. It occurred to me that just as in the Arctic, green grass must absorb more heat than white snow, so the warmth may continue past then. For what it's worth, the official Lake Erie temperature is 8 degrees above normal.

[terip64]

1. I am in MI and this week it feels more like March than Jan.n/t

[hedgehog]

3. We had a March day yesterday right down to the wind and sunshine.

Sunshine in Upstate New York in the winter is a novelty. We're generally under overcast skies because of the Lakes.

[Az]

5. We do have some black ice out this morning

but the rest of the day looks like teeshirt weather (for nonMichiganders that means above freezing).

[hedgehog]

9. Ice is a lot worse than snow any day of the week.

We had frost this morning. It's all melted off now at 10AM

[Az]

14. Oh definately

The freeways were solid blocks of red on the traffic reports this morning. You can't see black ice. You don't know you are on it till you are spinning.

[Squatch]

2. ENSO

[hedgehog]

4. ENSO?

[Squatch]

7. Yeah, it's a very well documented phenom.

[hedgehog]

8. I looked up ENSO

It seems to be a more detailed understanding of the El Nino phenomenon. I'm not certain how much that is involved in what I am seeing now. The winter of 2002-2003 was like this. A big snow storm early in the year followed by an open mild winter. That year finished up with another big snow storm in March followed by an ice storm in April. As near as I can tell, that wasn't an El Nino year. I don't know what happens when El Nino gets added in. I don't think anybody does. One aspect of Global warming is that we are literally off the charts; there is no record of the interactions of these particular conditions.

[Julius Civitatus]

6. New York City: 54 degrees today

This last December was the first in recorded history with no snow at all.
January is heading for another record high temperatures.

[dogday]

10. Relatives in Cleveland are saying

this is the weirdest weather they have ever had for January....

[hedgehog]

11. Our weather has been strange for at least a year.

Moisture from the Gulf has kept the Oswego River running high since last winter. Normally it runs high for several days when the snow melts.

[mtnester]

13. Central Ohio here, it will be sunny and damn near 60 degrees today

again

We should be looking for subzero temps. NO WHERE in sight

Just like last winter, only WARMER even.

[hedgehog]

20. I can remember winters there back in the early 80's

The ground froze as hard as iron and all the grass turned brown.

[FedUpWithIt All]

25. I am from this area...

People out and about are calling the weather..."Scary".

There have been so many concerning things around here is the past couple years but taking the kids out on Christmas day with no jackets had to be one of the oddest.

Edited to add...Outside my window right now is a tree that did not even bother to lose it's leaves. It looks and feels like spring. The sun is shining and the temp is light jacket weather at best.

[malta blue]

12. Was up in Quebec province over New Year's holiday

and spoke with some of the locals who depend upon the snow for a living. The dog sled operator who I usually contract for a ride every year said "I don't know how you feel about that Al Gore, but I tell ya, he sure knows what he is talking about as far as global warming".

We took a ride on about 2 inches of snow, and they closed the trails about an hour after we went since the few sleds that went through cleared the snow off and the dogs were no longer able to run.

It's going to be 50 here today in the Albany, NY area.

Hi Hedgehog!:hi: How are things?

[hedgehog]

19. Things are going great.

Sapa has a permanent perch in a basket on the dining room table sitting in the sun. He is very vocal and gets treats daily. For some reason, he goes out the back door cat flap with the rest of the cats but insists on entering via the front door on the porch!

The kids have declared him to be a rattle cat since his tail quivers when he disapproves of things like the dogs! My older son insists that he is closer to a British or European domestic cat than an Amercian domestic due to his size and shape of his head, so he must be descended from recent immigrants!

[malta blue]

21. That is great to hear!

He does have a funny tail thing going on, I recall being quite amused by it myself
:rofl:

I have no idea of the ancestry other than he came from Kentucky, perhaps a recent immigrant from Europe to the south?

Glad this are going well.
:)

[hedgehog]

23. He's one well traveled cat!

Kentucky to New York.

[malta blue]

24. He was only 5 weeks old when I got him

during a brief stint in Louisville. He was my co-pilot on the drive to upstate NY.

[Marrah_G]

15. I live in Mass

My grass is still green. We've had no accumulative snow, just a couple flakes here and there. I have yet to put on a winter coat. Yes we have had mild winters now and then, but this seems very different to me.

It hasn't been winter here yet.....we are stuck in autumn.

[truebrit71]

16. Dunno about you but I am freezing my arse off in Chicago...

....'course it's due to the wind...the ambient temp is supposed to reach 50 degrees today...It is January right?

[Az]

18. 50 degree?!?!

In Chi town? In January?!? Great.... we freaking melted the planet.

[truebrit71]

27. Yup...Very hard to believe...

....the bottom is supposed to fall out towards the end of this week...all the way down to about 40 degrees...

Very, very surprising...

[lectrobyte]

17. upper 60s and possibly 70 here this week in NC, the usual high is 50. nt

[The Anti-Neo Con]

22. Freezing in the west, mild in the east.

It's not warm throughout the whole country, look at what happened in Colorado/Kansas. It seems the further east you go, the milder conditions get. I'm stuck in the middle of it all here in St. Louis. Highs here have been in the upper 40's-low 50's as of late, but what has been unusual are some of the bitterly cold nights we have been having.

[Bandit]

26. I saw a post here a day or so that said cherry blossoms were coming out

in Virginia. :shrug: everything is topsy-turvey..

[paparush]

28. Flowering dandelions at my house on Dec 30th. NC Mountains

around 3100' of elevation.

unf#cking believable.