"Unusual weather we're having...."

[3113]

...to quote the Cowardly Lion. Only in reverse. He says it when it snows on the spring poppies. But apparently, the Northeast is having poppies bloom amid the winter snow....

Unseasonable weather jolts Northeast

As Marie Goff drove up the muddy access road to the top of the bobsled track at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Saturday, the thermometer on the dashboard caught her eye. "Unbelievable, 51 degrees," said Goff, a driver for the Olympic Regional Development Authority. "Thank goodness it stopped raining and thank goodness the track is refrigerated."

The balmy winter, which has sap running, tree buds sprouting and dogs shedding their winter coats, has been unlike any other in Goff's memory, and she's 83. The National Weather Service reported record or near-record temperatures across the region Saturday after a long warm spell.

Albany International Airport hit 71 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The temperature at Boston's Logan International Airport was 69 degrees at about 2:30 p.m. In New Jersey, records set in 1950 were broken in Newark, Trenton and Atlantic City. And in New York City's Central Park, the thermometer hit 72, tying January's all-time high. The city, and much of the region, has seen no snow this winter.

"I can remember a thaw at Christmas many times, but not for the length of time we've had this year," said Goff, who was ferrying passengers at the Chevrolet Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, a competition on ice by racecar drivers.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projected that December, January and February would be about 2 percent warmer in the Northeast than the 30-year average, citing both the oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific, or El Nino, as well as long-term climate trends.

A cold front coming into the Northeast was expected to begin lowering temperatures Saturday night, said Neil Stuart, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

Eight of the 12 warmest years on record have happened since 1990, and the big culprit for the overall trend has been global warming, said David Robinson, the New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University.

"You can't explain this without including the enhancement of greenhouse gases," Robinson said.

The weather is bad news for some businesses. Kelly Belli, 34, a secretary at Aero Snow Removal's office in Newark, N.J., said worrying wasn't going to solve the lack of business, she said.

"You can't change the weather," she said. "It is what it is."

 

[rgraham666]

The biggest ski resort in Ontario laid off 1,300 workers this week.

 

[impressive]

It's been lovely here for January (lows in the low 50s and highs in the upper 60s). A little damp & windy, but MUCH preferable to the frigid temps or slushy snow. Wheelchairs and snow do not get along well.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I'm in New Jersey, and it was T-Shirt and Convertable Top Down weather yesterday. Very interesting indeed.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

It's gotta change.

There's me slogging away at a Val Day story where Boston's gripped in icy tundra with the worst snowstorm on record and... I'm sitting out on the deck in Cambridge in T-shirt and shorts.

 

[S-Des]

It was cold here last night (a bit nicer than usual, but still well below freezing). Our weather has been up and down, but it's still definitely winter.

 

[minsue]

My former home sunny Scottsdale is currently colder than gray and drizzly England. It's also colder than most of the NE of the US. Damned topsy turvy weather....

 

[kiten69]

It is humid in the lower 80s today...it is supposed to be winter WTF!!!

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Winter weather as usual of Oregon - RAINING Nothing unusual about that.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

I think this proves that global warming is happening

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

I think this proves that global warming is happening

Not necessarily. I've heard these cycles are normal and have happened before. Of course, I think they mean spread out over a large amount of time because I can remember we always had snow in the winter when I was a kid and now we don't get any.

 

[rise_again]

Not necessarily. II can remember we always had snow in the winter when I was a kid and now we don't get any.

i miss the snow. we havent really had any in a few years

 

[Tom Collins]

It's bloody cold here in Flag, and been snowing a lot. Not like in Colorado though. They got hammered with like 6 feet of snow in two weeks. I bet all their ski resorts are rockin' right now.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I actually found myself wishing for snow this morning. It just feels wrong and I don't think it's going to last. Let me go on record as predicting severe storms in the Northeast for February to March.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

i miss the snow. we havent really had any in a few years

We haven't had any to amount to anything in a long while. What little we did get last year turned into muddly slush after half an hour of the kids being out in it.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Global warming, anyone?

Oh sure, you say that NOW, but when Greenland melts and floods the Eastern seaboard, I'll be in the middle of the US saying, "I told you so!"

 

[rise_again]

im a proponent of the whole global-warming thing happening. didnt a huge icecap just break off of northern canada...explain please

 

[only_more_so]

Global warming, anyone?

Oh sure, you say that NOW, but when Greenland melts and floods the Eastern seaboard, I'll be in the middle of the US saying, "I told you so!"

Um... you do know that Greenland was GREEN a thousand years ago, right? It was settled by people from Iceland and was a lush and fertile area. There is a reason it is called Greenland.

Also, sea level rises wouldn't hurt much of the eastern seaboard as much as places like Holland, Venice, and those pacific island countries that are barely above high tide as it is.

 

[SlickTony]

It's 80, we're sleeping naked and wearing shorts and flipflops outside. Yeah, I know, Florida, but this is January...