Can you believe this weather?
 

I live in the middle of Michigan and it was 50 degrees F today!! I have ridden every day in 2007. With apologies to you guys in Colorado, Kansas, etc., this has been a great winter for cycling so far. There is no snow in sight either. Gotta love it. I am sure that you folks in the Northeast are grinning too.

Yep, global warming at it's finest. Just ridiculous weather...I was actually outside in a T-shirt today.

It's great to have warm weather in January, but aren't you just a little spooked by it? The climatologists tell us it's warming up and they also provide a few more dire predictions. Aren't you just a little queasy about it all?

We haven't even had the slightest hint of winter in Virginia. (Sorry Colorado). But it's freaky that my spring flowers are starting to bloom. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 70.

Pretty typical winter california so far. Low's go into the low 40's, high in the mid 50's. But I guess everyone else is just loving it.

Yes gerv, I am quite spooked and alarmed by the weather, not so much for our generation, but for those that follow. I'm afraid that it is something that our children and grandchildren will be forced to deal with in the not too distant future. Anyone who doesn't notice the difference since when we were young just isn't paying attention.

It sucks. Basically, there are three seasons -- beach season, ski season, and the crap in between. Here in the DC area, we are stuck in the crap. I've had the winter tires on the bike for three weeks now.

Paul

I think all your snow came this way. We just had our third snow storm in three weeks today and I've now got about 4 feet piled up in front of the house. Usually we'll see a few inches at a time maybe once a month this time of the the year on the Front Range.

I could just kill myself. Today is supposed to be casual Friday, I have a spare bike that I keep at work and it is 53 degrees in the middle of January. Could I jump on my bike and go for a long spin? No, I had to go to court for one client and visit another client in a nursing home. By the time I got back to the office fininshed up my long day, it was raining, cold and dark.




Gas, the price of a can of beans.

It's 67F at 10pm in Northern Virginia just west of Washington D.C.. I found another 50+ rider at my church last week and we're going to take advantage of the heat spell for a ride tomorrow.

Yep, and I gotta work until 1500 - I'll be on the bike within the hour, though, figure I can get in about 12-14 miles before it starts to get dark. Will probably be up early Sunday to do another loop, because I've got an M/C meeting, and most likely a club run to a couple of bars (mandatory), so that's going to cut into my Sunday workout a bit.

I am not so spooked by the weather as I am by the scientific reports about global warming. I remember playing golf (back in '78, I believe) on Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. We wore shirtsleeves and this was in the Philly area.

There have been warm winters and brutal winters in the intervening years, so one season's warmth doesn't really spook me. Reports of huge areas of ice breaking off at the poles and other signs of climate change that has apparently been caused by the worlds industrialized ways concerns me a great deal. I just read an article in National Geographic about how the Amazon rain forest is being affected, first by uncontrolled logging, then by land-grabbers who clear the land for agriculture.

Of course, that isn't unlike what we have done in this country for years, so, why could we expect any different reaction from peoples in other lands. I can imagine the Amazon basin would produce bumper-sized crop yields if modern agricultural methods were applied.

The result will be devastating to that ecosystem and will ultimately have negative effects world-wide.

Seeing and appreciating the enormity of the problem is far easier for me than suggesting a solution. My knee-jerk reaction is to protect places like the Amazon or the Arctic/Antarctic at all costs. That's easy for me to say from the comfort of my suburban home which sits in a community that displaced thousands upon thousands of acres of pristine farmland that years ago displaced the same acreage of rolling woodlands.

As a kid, I had a favorite fishing spot on a river in Michigan. It was a vast area where the installation of a dam had caused a low-lying wooded area to be flooded. No one had bothered to clear the trees, so it was an angler's paradise to "fish the woods" and pull out monster pike and bass. Today, that area has been dredged to make way for personal watercraft and speed boats. I lament the loss of my favorite fishing hole - but I also enjoy personal watercraft and speed boats. Which use is "right." The original dam was installed to control flooding to provide for more development along the river - was that the first mistake? There are plaques aplenty asserting the wisdom of my predecessors for having the foresight to have engineered and installed that dam. Today, I, personally, have second (even third) thoughts.

I could go on and on.

I don't have the answers, but I do share the same concerns as others posting in this thread.

Caruso

Yesterday, today, tomorrow and the following 3 days, the forecast is Rain. Good solid rain. No sign of cold weather- no sign of frost or snow, and hopefully- No high winds. Just dreary old rain.

At least I won't have to clear the mud off the bike tomorrow as a 5 mile trip on the road should clear all the mud off it. Or should I just take the road bike and get it dirty with road dirt. Or should I just stay in bed and get a headache.

Don't mind a bit of rain in the summer, Don't mind it occasionally but this is getting beyond a joke now.

Hold on though- This is winter. What else can I expect at this time of the year. I know I should not expect the Buds to be showing on the plants in the garden and I know I should not expect to have to mow the lawn again (If it ever peeps out from under the 2" of Water), And we still still have a hosepipe ban in force through a lack of water. Then on top of that- If I waited for fine weather to get a ride in- I would not do many rides in a year. And that includes the height of the Summer.

Its been hot, 80+, and humid all Dec down here. I think they said we had 30 days above normal and this was the hotest Dec on record. I would actually like to see some cooler weather. Also I'm usually making big advances in the bike journal standings this time of year, if all you guys up north are riding everyday how can I put any distance on the field :)

We're heading for the 70's in NC today. I might take out the roadie instead of the MTB.

Southeast MI usually gets hammered every year with snow, with January usually the worst. I retired my shovel after five years of clearing the driveway and sidewalks, and umpteen epsom salt baths. I think it was the first week of November 2005 that the first 2005-snow fell. My small snowblower finally bit the dust after about six winters of Michigan snow. Having retired the shovel, I spent an hour on my computer on a November 2005-Saturday, trying to find a replacement snowblower from the Downriver Sears stores. Nada.

The snowblower replacement that I wanted from Sears in 2005 was only available in Howell, MI ... over 50 miles one way. Off I go in the Grand Marquis (19 mpg/highway). I've had my new snowblower for about 13 months now ... haven't used it once.

Although southern Michigan hasn't gotten much snow this winter, it's not for lack of precipitation. I think it's been raining for the last two months! As I look out in the horse pasture, there is a NEW LAKE. It's probably no more than 2 or 3 feet deep, but it's at least 200 feet across. The pond overflowed its banks over a month ago, and continues to rise. The normal high for the Lansing area in January is 30F. Today the predicted high is somewhere near 50F, and it's already been raining all morning.

Does anybody have plans for building a pedal powered ark?

I live on Cape Cod and got in 75 miles so far this week, today was a rain out but it's 64 F. It doesn't feel right riding in shorts here in Jan.

Here in south central Wisconsin it has been running about 10-12 degrees above normal for 4 weeks now. None of the lakes and ponds are frozen. We have mud in our backyard! Mud! We never have mud in January. I believe today is the 29th consecutive day where the high temp has been 32 or above, with over half of those days being in the 40s. I cannot remember a winter like this.

Our normal hi/lo for this time of year is around 27/6. As that is normal, about half of the days should be colder than this. Very common to have weather with highs in the 10-15 range and lows below zero. And the real cold days will have highs below zero and lows around -20.

I wonder what the impact will be upon wildlife, plants, insects, etc., this coming summer.

RIght now here it is 17 F with wind gusts to 55 mph. :mad: :( :eek:

My crocuses are blooming!
My daffodils are about to bloom!
My irises never died back at all!
My buddleia decided they are no longer deciduous!
My roses are still green and growing!
There's a cloud of midges by my back door every sunny afternoon.
There's a huge flock of grackles in the wood off to the south that decided to stick out the winter here!
This isn't right. . .makes coyotes peckish 'cause we count on the cold to beat back the tularemia.

>>> wonder what the impact will be upon wildlife

Ten years ago, I could count my lifetime sightings here* of fox squirrel on one hand. Now I never leave the den but that I see dozens in the oaks. . .big as medium cats.

* - West [Occupied] Virginia

Hey Coyote, are you a West Virginian? I am, just temporarily displaced to Wisconsin. My family moved to WV, well western Virginia then, in the 1780s. I lived there for my first 35 years, and am a WVU grad.

Are we in the same DC? So far this year I have over 180 miles with several of the rides in shorts and t-shirt including today when it got above 70 with a beautiful sky. Only gripe is that a zillion walkers, joggers, dog walkers, bikers, skaters, etc were on the Mt Vernon, W&OD and Capital Crescent Trails making the going a little slow at times. Today might have been the most perfect biking weather I have ever riden in.:p

A record 72° today here in NJ and went for a nice two hour ride .:)

Been pouring in Ohio. I get the feeling we may be the start of the new rain forest.