Roody

We've had record high temperatures for more than a week now. Some of the records have been beaten by 10 degrees or more. The trees are already budding out--more than a month earlier than usual.

What the hell is going on?

2manybikes

I'm getting the same in R.I. I basically missed all of winter. Good weather still predicted up here.

The end of time must be coming.

bruin11

If that's the case you better keep enjoying it while it lasts

Artkansas 

Since I understand what is happening, I'm not freaked out.

rockmom

It's La Nina, though it is starting to weaken.

JeanSeb

When it starts raining rocks, I'll be a little more worried. But right now, I'll concentrate on riding more, driving less and consuming wisely.

wahoonc

Dunno, but I have been busting my butt to get the garden ready ...spread 1200# of BS in it this weekend

Aaron

2manybikes

Almost as much as spread around the forums. You saw that coming didn't you?

Dahon.Steve

I can imagine what hurricane season is going to look like this year? The planet is really heating up fast and it gets worse each year. I like the temperature since it saves money from having to use the furnace. I just wonder what are the long term effects will be.

Smallwheels

I'm loving the weather in Montana, sort of. Early in the cold season, just before winter started, there were two weeks of low teens and zero degree weather. Don't forget about that.

After that it got close to the long term average but mostly just below it. January and February were mixed with very low and barely above average days. More days were at or one to two degrees above average from February on. This is the first winter I've had here that was close to what I expected before I moved here. For most of the six winters it has been much colder than average. Having a month and a half of weather with temperatures just three to five degrees higher than normal is refreshing. I had to go to work two days ago in three inches of snow. It is much faster when there is no snow on the roads. The snow has melted from the roads and the remainder will melt by Thursday. Yay!

swwhite

Minnesota was bad; 77 degrees on March 18, hardly any snow all winter. Last year there was a huge amount of snow. They say that weather extremes are a predicted symptom of climate change. Any native Minnesotan over the age of 50 should be able to see from personal experience that things are not what they were a mere half a human lifetime ago.

NCbiker

I was more freaked out last winter when I froze my azz off. 3rd coldest winter on record here. This year has been the third warmest.

Suburban

I don't think too deeply about it. I abhor winter. I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

dcrowell

If the world is ending, it better do it before April 17th. I owe the IRS a bunch of money.

Northwestrider

.

bluegoatwoods

The trees are budding in Lansing? That is incredible.

I grew up pretty near you (near Jackson). I never saw green in the trees before the first week of May was ending.

Here in central Illinois there is now green in even the tall trees. Almost exactly a month before normal. About thirty years ago now I spent a half decade in San Francisco. The winter we just had here was comparable to one of those winters. Though I'll admit that the thermometer plunged lower than it would have there several times, the winters there had a wet, deep-bone-chilling coldness. In terms of over-all comfort level, they were roughly equal. Had the wind been less severe, this past winter (between Chicago and St Louis) would have been more comfortable than one in SF. Hard to believe.

I am in the camp who believes that CO2 from fossil fuels will warm the planet, but I have a hard time believing that it could be this abrupt. (If I'm wrong there, then "Fellas, it's been good to know ya")

I'm more inclined to think that this year is warmer than average simply because some years have to be.

But what a difference!

gerv 

You should be concerned about longterm weather patterns. There are lots of sign of warming going on.

For this past winter, you should just note it was a La Nina year and the previous two winters here were rather brutal/cold. Around here the specter of drought resulting from little snow and no rain in the fall is a bigger concern.

Smallwheels

I forgot to mention that there were several days of below zero temperatures. The coldest that I recall riding in this year was minus ten degrees Fahrenheit. There were fewer of those days this year.

In 2005 I experienced really cold weather for the first time. In my first year in Montana the lowest low was minus twenty-two. My pants were made stiff by that temperature in less than a minute. I just had to go out and experience it. That cold spell kept the high temperature below zero for a week. That same summer the highs were tying records. None of the summers since 2005 have been as hot. Looking at annual temperatures just can't predict a trend. It must take decades of observations to recognize a trend. As it is the long term trend shows temperatures dropping over more than a century.

enigmaT120

Here it's just raining. Nothing new. Well, it might snow for the next few days where I live.

ro-monster

Every day I check the weather forecast on Weather Underground. There's a little sidebar on the page that shows notable weather events all over the world. Several all-time record highs and lows appear every day. The interesting thing is that most of the previous records for these locations were also set within the past 30 years. It appears that the weather actually has been growing more extreme in recent years.

Pobble.808

Hailstorms on Oahu last week. Something is defintitely out of whack.

wahoonc

Yup but at least on the forums it is FREE!

Aaron

Roody

Yes, but I read earlier this year that this La Nina was a weak one, whereas the heat wave is one of the longest and strongest on record.


Mutant Heat Wave Shattering Records


Here are a couple things I wonder about:

1. If there's a cold snap, the prematurely budding trees will be severely damaged. In a big fruit growing state like Michigan, this can be economically devastating. But it can't be good for all the garden trees and wild trees either.
2. Mis-timed migration: Migratory birds down south haven't heard the weather reports, so they will stay put until their normal times to migrate north in May. By then, the plants that are their food source might have already bloomed and died back, leaving the newly arriving birds with a depleted food supply.
3. If it's this warm in March, what's it going to be like in July?

(I honestly don't know how likely these results are, but I do know they are at least possible)

Roody

I believe the Northwest is about the only region that isn't having a heat wave.

wphamilton

North Atlantic Oscillation is currently in positive phase if I'm not mistaken. Last year a strongly negative phase brought the arctic air down resulting in the unusually cold winter.

Positive phase is a high subtropical pressure in the Atlantic, and low pressure near Iceland. It tends to inhibit the southward movement of the cold Arctic mass and typically results in wetter, warmer weather over the eastern US and to a lesser degree generally warmer climate over the continent.