71 Degrees in January? A New High Is Recorded

[Herman Munster]

While many New Yorkers reveled in the record warmth, members of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, a winter swimming club, staged a silent protest on the beach in Brooklyn.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/nyregion/07heat.html?hp&ex=1168146000&en=8a6eba28239dbea7&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Hundreds of tourists and locals packed the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center yesterday, pretending that it really was a cold, snowy day in early January as they circled the ice beneath the twinkling lights of the giant Christmas tree. In Brooklyn, 10 members of the cold-water-braving organization known as the Coney Island Polar Bear Club donned their bathing suits and walked toward the waves.

The only thing that ruined this winter imagery was the temperature, which in the middle of the afternoon in Central Park yesterday reached a record-breaking 72 degrees. And so the make-believe winter collided with reality: People wore T-shirts as they ice-skated on the wet and sloshy rink at Rockefeller Center, and the Polar Bears turned their back on the Atlantic and headed toward the boardwalk, a protest, albeit an underdressed one, against global warming.

Louis Scarcella, 55, a former homicide detective and president of the Coney Island club, said the weather has been so mild lately that he is considering cancelling the group’s winter swimming season, which usually runs from November to April, for lack of any weather resembling winter. A club season has not been cancelled since the group was founded 104 years ago.

“I have not made the decision yet,” Mr. Scarcella said gravely. “I have to meet with my board. It’s a possibility. It’s not the extreme sport that we love. It’s a very easy swim.”

The unseasonably warm spell of mild, humid temperatures yesterday shattered records around the city and the state as well as throughout New Jersey and Connecticut. In Central Park, the high temperature at 1:37 p.m. — 72 degrees — broke the date’s previous high of 63 degrees in 1950, the National Weather Service reported. The 72-degree high was the highest temperature recorded in the park in January since record-keeping began in the late 1800s, sharing the distinction with a 72-degree high on Jan. 26, 1950.

In Bridgeport, Conn., the weather service said, yesterday’s high of 63 degrees shattered the 53 degrees reached in 1949. In Newark, N.J., the high of 72 surpassed the previous record of 61 in 1950.

Everywhere in New York yesterday, the balmy weather played havoc with recreational activities, aquatic misadventures, fashion choices, political affairs and commerce.

[bluerum]

1. Regional temperature variation due to climate fluctuations. Move along. nt

[Deja Q]

3. Well it might be.

Today it was 28 in Minnesota. That's not abnormal.

Though admittedly we had some 60 degree days in Decemeber and there's no snow out right now...

[bluerum]

5. Sorry - cant' put sarcasm smilies in subject lines. Damn. nt

[leftchick]

6. the abnormal winter is world wide

nothing regional about it. This is climate change folks.

[bluerum]

13. Yes- the region is the planet. nt

[terisan]

2. If this is winter, what will summer be like ? n/t

[Bonhomme Richard]

10. Thinking the same thing. July - 110°?

[provis99]

4. in my town in Canada its above freezing; scares the living shit out of me

how can I go snowshoeing to my friends' igloos when there's no snow? Damn you, global warming!

[etherealtruth]

8. Worse than that ...

How do you play hockey if there is no ice?O8)

[flordehinojos]

7. no brids (ore relatively very few and noticeably so) have migrated down to sunny south florida this

year ... the one intersection around here which has always had hundreds of birds lined up on the electric and phone lines is empty of birds ... just the few chirping souls who happen to be there year round. my husband and i can't cease to be both puzzled and amazed by this.

[shireen]

9. winter is my favorite season, and I am pissed!!!

75d in Baltimore. This is nuts. I want snow, dammit! x(

[soothsayer]

11. Ocean's still cold. Dive in, friends!

[-..__...]

12. I love it!

:thumbsup: :headbang: :woohoo: :applause:

I live just outside of Boston. If I never see another single snowflake in my life... I'll die a happy man!

:thumbsup: :headbang: :woohoo: :applause: