The US Northeast in the midst of a January heatwave.
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.
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 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 New York Times added:
And so the make-believe winter collided with reality: People wore T-shirts as they ice-skated on the wet and slushy rink at Rockefeller Center, and the [Coney Island] Polar Bears [club] held a moment of silence, turned their backs on the Atlantic and headed toward the boardwalk, a protest, albeit an underdressed one, against global warming, they said.
There's a certain humor as well as poignance in the Polar Bears' protest, but check out the temperature graphs in this story. There's nothing funny about them.
Meanwhile, in Washington, DC
springlike temperatures have faked out flora, causing dogwoods and daffodils to bloom.
That's the sort of thing that may seem even a little cute right now, but over the long term, can affect everything from agriculture to water and soil. Even in a society that seems to think that it is protected forever by pipes and cement, and oil company-funded right wingers telling them convenient lies.
And in Colorado...
A huge avalanche knocked two cars off a mountain pass Saturday on the main highway to one of the state's largest ski areas, shortly after crowds headed through on the way to the lifts, authorities said...Our crews said it was the largest they have ever seen. It took three paths," Stacey Stegman of the transportation department said of the massive slide on U.S. 40 near 11,307-foot Berthoud Pass, about 50 miles west of Denver on the way to Winter Park Resort.
Three snow storms in as many weeks have dumped more than 4 feet of snow on parts of Colorado and authorities haven't had time to test all slide areas, Spencer said. "This is a tremendous amount of snow to come down the mountain for us," Stegman said.
But perhaps most tellingly, in Alaska:
To the untrained eye, Bonanza Creek forest is breathtaking, a vibrant place alive with butterflies and birds, with evidence of moose and bear at every turn. But look through forest ecologist Glenn Juday's eyes, and you see a dying landscape.
Since the 1970s, climate change has doubled the growing season in some places. Since 1950, the overall state temperature has risen by 3.5°F, while wintertime temperatures have risen by 6°F, says Juday, a professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Drought is stressing and killing spruce, aspen and birch trees.
Alaska has emerged as the poster state for global warming...
And if you still think this is simply inconvenient even if true, there's this from Italy:
Sandwiched between temperate Europe and African heat, Italy is on the front line of climate change and is witnessing a rise in tropical diseases such as malaria and tick-borne encephalitis, a new report says.
Italy was declared free of malaria in 1970, but it is making a comeback, said the Italian environmental organisation Legambiente. Tick-borne encephalitis, a virus which attacks the nerve system, is also on the way back. While only 18 cases had been reported before 1993, 100 have been since, mostly around Venice.
As to whether this weather has anything to do with global heating...Let's consider this statement issued recently via Newsweek:
“It is clear today that greenhouse gas emissions are one of the factors that contribute to climate change, and that the use of fossil fuels is a major source of these emissions.”
The statement was responding to the Union of Concerned Scientists study stating that Exxon-Mobil had secretly been funding a disinformation campaign against research showing precisely what the statement asserts.
Oh, by the way, the statement is part of the official response...of Exxon Mobil.
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