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Just What the Hell is Going On Here?

zuzu

Seriously, people. It’s January, I live in New York, and I just returned from a trip to the store in which I wore a t-shirt and flip-flops.*

Just a little winter, that’s all I ask. I don’t think I’ve worn a coat since November.

UPDATE: I think I’ve found our snow.

* For some odd reason, I feel compelled to mention that I also wore pants. I did eventually rescue them from the washer.

61 thoughts on Just What the Hell is Going On Here?

  1. Yeah, I was just in Union Square and there were people wearing summer dresses, shorts, etc. I was sweating wearing a hoodie, for god’s sake. It’s January 6! We’re all doomed.

  2. We’re having freaky weather in Madison, WI too. This is shaping up to be the first winter in memory where the lakes don’t freeze over.

  3. Same here in Michigan–this is supposed to be the coldest time of the year and yet it’s in the 40’s and even 50’s (I went running in shorts yesterday in JANUARY…. this is really freaky!)

  5. I am in Boston and it’s hot! Even though a lot of folks in power don’t want to admit it, I think it is a safe guess to say that global warming is responsible for the erratic weather.

  6. We have no snow, and we’re even northier here — it’s about 20 degrees (F) above normal for early January.

    Bad news: global warming. Good news: I don’t have to shovel off my balcony.

  7. Screw global warming it’s bloody cold here in Colorado. 😉

    We up in your mountainz stealin’ all your snowz

    Of course the people can’t handle it because its usually cold for a day or two then it just magically melts away but boy it has piled up in the last couple of weeks. My dog loves it.

  8. We up in your mountainz stealin’ all your snowz

    Love it. Well, you’re almost in that same stripe of the country I am, just way northier, as wolfa put it, so I’m not surprised. Denver down to Albuquerque and now, apparently, down to me (though much less severely)–all your snowz are belong to us.

  10. God’s intentions are clear: the East Coast will melt off of the continent, the Southwest will freeze to a solid block and the Northwest coast will just blow away into the Pacific. California, of course, will just break off in an earthquake as we’ve always thought.

    And Texas will be fine.

    Zuzu, I’m glad you wore pants.

  12. So. Cal is cold! (though Christmas was in the mid to upper 70’s)Gusty winds yesterday, ice closed the Grapevine (Caltrans is screwing with Cajon pass, so good or bad weather, anyone traipsing out to Vegas or the River is going to be in bumper to bumper traffic)

    Our wet weather is usually mid Jan thru first part of March…if it stays this cold we’ll get some very low snow levels (1000-1500ft).

  13. SoCal is freaking cold right now. And the wind knocked out my power for a few hours yesterday morning. My roommate is forcing me to light the pilot in our heater. Last year I didn’t bother because I wanted to save money. She’s not letting it go this year.

  14. It’s not even just the odd warmth. My farmer’s daughter spidey senses say the air doesn’t feel like winter (which it can when it’s warm); it doesn’t have the right edge to it. It only felt like winter for about a week and a half in November; it’s felt like spring for awhile now.

  15. Gabriel Malor said:

    SoCal is freaking cold right now

    We use the term “cold” loosely here in good ol’ so-cal. If it drops below 65, dammit, turn on the heater! Bust out the scarves and gloves! I have TWO blankets on my bed now! GOLLY!

    I love it here. I really do.

  16. wow.

    i knew this was crazy. here in chicago it was sunny, blue skies, and about 40-50 degrees. usually we have a foot of snow and below zero temps. we all walk around the city saying how awesome the weather is while we secretly mother eff the right who fails to acknowldge that global warming is a real threat.

    my yia yia says that in greece, the trees have begun growing leaves again thinking that it’s spring. i feel like i’m in a movie, and the seasons have reversed.

  17. I had to tie a silk shirt up because even that was too warm. I am dressing for Spring and I have friends who have their spring bulbs coming up. There is reports of sugaring off in the maple groves and they can’t cut timber on my Dad’s woodlot because the ground is too soggy for the equipment. You could just blame this on seasonal variation if we weren’t seeing MOSS growing on our balcony due to the unremitting humidity. This is on a south facing balcony that gets sun all day long. If we don’t dry out or freeze soon I am going to have to shave the deck.
    Welcome to the new climate- Montreal is the new Vancouver.

  19. Pingback: a wolf angel is not a good angel » 2007, starting out with a whimper

  20. In my part of Kansas, we haven’t had winter for about three years. We’ll get a week or two of weather below freezing, and we did actually get snow this year (amazingly–we used to get a good snow day or two every year until the past two years). Other than that, it’s like … pre-spring. And then spring winds up being part of the “hottest summer on record.”

    But there is NOTHING WRONG with the environment, riiiiight?

    Actually, part of our problem is geography. I live in an area where Gulf fronts compete with Pacific fronts, and so all sorts of weather events miss us but hit to our left and right. But even still, I think we’re supposed to get something LIKE four seasons … even if parts of spring are in winter, winter in spring, summer in spring, and winter in fall …

  21. Well obviously New York is stealing Sydney, Australia’s weather.

    It’s summer – I’m suppose to be sweating continously but now I wonder where my armpits have gone because it is so bloody mild! Even Christmas Day where you’re suppose to have a nap at about 3pm because eating big meals in 40+C weather is tiring work but this Xmas Day the sun was hardly out.

    Me no likey.

  22. Montreal is the new Vancouver.

    qft. I’m in Ottawa and I was outside in just jeans and a light sweater today. On New Years Day I was lounging around in my yard reading in the sun. Wtf :/

  23. Living in central New Mexico, I would like to ask all of the northeastern states enjoying what was formerly our mild winter to please give it back. You can have your crappy cold back.

    Please?

  24. It’s just an el nino year is all.

    Man, you can take this snow. In Albuquerque we’ve had the most snow ever. It’s everywhere. It won’t go away!

  25. Hey Meri, did you get the revolting wet-and-humid summer, too? Because the northeastern states can definitely have that back. I can’t stand it when the sweat’s all pooling between my boobs.

  26. Living in central New Mexico, I would like to ask all of the northeastern states enjoying what was formerly our mild winter to please give it back. You can have your crappy cold back.

    Please?

    Gladly!

    This isn’t even January thaw weather, where you can sense the snow just waiting to come back. This is cool late summer night weather. The grass hasn’t even died yet, and the fall colors were sucky.

  27. Its not the same thing Meri, here in New Hampshire, its not just that mild, dormant winter that I knew of in New Mexico or Phoenix, this is like freekin’ spring! The air smells of pollen and moisture, like early spring when the ground is wet from the months of accumulated melted snow drifts and the trees are beginning to sense the time to pop out and bud.

    I am considering asking a customer if they want to get started on a garage build now as the ground hasn’t even frozen and I could use the money now. There was something in the paper today about contractors starting their build projects now.

    I just am afraid that as soon as I line everyone up a hard frost will hit and snow will fly and then we would have started everything up for nothing. There is no telling how long this will last, of course, I was saying the same thing in November, certain that by January we’d have had a hard frost at least already.

  28. Supposedly by Wendesday it will be seasonal again, and we’ll all freeze. (that’s NYC metro area, I dunno what DC and New England will be doing) The poor plants are sooooo confused.

  29. Here in Toronto it’s gotten as high as 10°C outside, maybe higher. It feels like April. There’s a week of cold weather predicted — even flurries! — but the temperature stubbornly refuses to dip below freezing. I hope against hope that this doesn’t presage an even hotter summer; last summer was bad enough (highs of 45°C, counting the humidity). I don’t care what the Australians say, that’s not livable.

    I look forward to being an old codger, in a couple of years or so, and being able to bang my cane on the porch and say “When I was your age, we got so much snow that the Army had to come dig us out!”

  30. It only felt like winter for about a week and a half in November; it’s felt like spring for awhile now.

    My allergies are sure as hell convinced it’s March…

  31. That’s the real concern here — a sudden freeze. Because hey, who needs all that pesky wildlife? I don’t want to imagine what this will do to the crops; I am going to pretend they will be just fine.

  32. Hey Meri, did you get the revolting wet-and-humid summer, too? Because the northeastern states can definitely have that back. I can’t stand it when the sweat’s all pooling between my boobs.

    It was very wet this past summer. Having lived in dry areas basically my entire life, I too hate sweating and just soaking in it. Of course, the outside humidity was made much worse inside the house by the swamp cooler that ran pretty much all day long, since everyone else in the house can’t stand heat. Plus the damp walls and carpet at the beginning of summer caused by water leaking in the shower piping.

    Still, it wasn’t as bad humidity wise as when I’d go visit my grandma and great-grandma in Pennsylvania in the summer.

  33. It has definitely been an odd winter. I’m in NW Ohio and it has been positively springlike. The tree in my backyard is getting buds on it already and my kid is hugely upset that there hasn’t been any snow. Because now we have a yard, but there’s no snow to build ‘the biggest snowman ever’. And a 4 yr just doesn’t get that mommy can’t control the weather.

  35. We use the term “cold” loosely here in good ol’ so-cal. If it drops below 65, dammit, turn on the heater! Bust out the scarves and gloves! I have TWO blankets on my bed now! GOLLY!

    Not that loosely. My husband checked the temperature about about 7:30 a.m. the other morning — 35 degrees.

    Thursday, it rained like hell (and we get cold rain in LA). Friday, it was windy enough that it was blowing down power lines. I saw a stop sign getting blown around like a pinwheel.

    And today was … beautiful. High 60s, sunny, just a light breeze.

    Bizarre.

  36. All I know is that I walked around in a cotton dress and open-toed shoes all day. On January 6th. In New York.

    In mild-winter Seattle, where it’s rainy, grey and 50 degrees for 9 months, they were looking at snow.

  37. I just had to abandon my car in a snowdrift. I wish I could share the Wyoming winter with all who feel their season is lacking… but know the Laramie experience shouldn’t really be wished upon anyone.

  38. Yea, wierd. I just turned on the water so my pipes won’t freeze tonight – its 30F and dropping in Pasadena, CA. Give us our heat back, our houses aren’t built for this shit!

  39. Of course, the outside humidity was made much worse inside the house by the swamp cooler that ran pretty much all day long, since everyone else in the house can’t stand heat.

    Ha. I came this close when I moved down here in 2005 to taking an apartment that had only evaporative cooling. The leasing agent gave me the hard sell and made a good case: Lower utility bills, less energy waste, and the ol’ “it’s a dry heat here, so, really, it’s all you’ll need.” Now I shudder to think how I’d have coped this last year had I taken it.

    And Vanessa, holy shit–f it weren’t for the scrub landscape (although I note it is very, very green scrub), you’d never dream that was Albuquerque.

  40. Vanessa – That video is incredible. It reminds me of Sitting Bull Falls down by Carlsbad.

    One cool thing that I’ve always liked about desert scrub, just a little water, and it’s *boom*–green and growing. Although, that aspect becomes less happy when it’s desert weeds growing ferociously in your yard to two feet tall in a matter of days.

  41. It’s warm here in Connecticut–I’ve been wearing flip-flops too–but I was in Israel last week, and it snowed in Jerusalem! It was more snow than we’ve had here all winter, and that is just not supposed to happen…

  42. I think it is a safe guess to say that global warming is responsible for the erratic weather.

    As far as I know, there are 3 things:

    1) Global warming
    2) An oddly-timed El Nino (not supposed to develop when it did)
    3) A general century-long variation in temps. Notice that a lot of winter warmth records were set back in the 30s as well.

    What’s different this time is that it’s even warmer than that previous period. This is probably due to a combination of (1) and (2), and (2) itself may be due to (1). So, yeah… this will be the norm in a few decades. A generally mild winter with the occasional massive cold front brining blizzards thanks to the warmer, wetter air that it runs into.

    Btw, here in Phoenix we are one of the few places in the nation that is having cooler than average temperatures. It’s still 60 during the day though :).

    One cool thing that I’ve always liked about desert scrub, just a little water, and it’s *boom*–green and growing.

    Something else that I find amazing here in the desert is how a rainstorm in the summer can bring the temperature from 120 degrees down to 85 in about 10 minutes. Crazy.

  43. I live in Central NY and it was gorgeous yesterday, minus about an hour of rain. The biggest thing was the wind, we had crazy gusts of wind that would spring up for no apparent reason. It feels like sring here too, not the middle of winter.

  44. I am definitely oscillating wildly between enjoying the unseasonable weather and fearing for the future of humanity. But right now, I think I’m leaning towards the former. It’s not crazy warm here, but it’s definitely a good twenty degrees warmer than it could be. I knit myself a warm, woolly hat this year, and I’ve barely had a chance to wear it.

  45. Rainy day in SW Ontario. We have not bought ice-melter yet this year. Yesterday I took the baby around the yard in just his regular clothes. Supposed to snow today.

    Normally, this time of year means shovelling at least once a day, with the neighbour coming over to help with his snow-blower occasionally.

  46. I’ve had the privilege of experience the crazy weather in two different regions. Visiting my family, I got to go out in late December in a light spring jacket. In the midwest.

    Now, I’m back in the Northwest, and the windstorms are kicking up. Again.

  47. 50 degrees and rainy. If we don’t get a freeze this winter the bugs will be unbearable by April. West Nile, anyone?

    I fear the sky will open up and dump on us in February.

  48. We just moved from Connecticut to Oregon, so seeing the warm weather back home while I’m freezing in Portland doesn’t make me happy, especially since my heavy winter coats are still in storage in CT. Obviously, something strange is going on this winter. I’ve been told that the trees are budding in CT, and it was warmer in Providence, RI than it was in Houston a couple days ago.

  49. I’m from So Cal originally but am currently a student in Boston and my parents are wearing more clothes than I am! It’s just wrong!!

  50. For some odd reason, I feel compelled to mention that I also wore pants.

    This reminds me of a very funny comment to an Orthodox Jewish student by the husband of Hillel Rabbi: “Wow! I’ve never seen you wearing pants before. Let me shake your hand!”.

    This isn’t the non-sequitor or innappropriate comment it seems — it makes a lot of sense: the Rabbi’s husband had never seen this particular young lady except at Shabbos, when she was always wearing a relatively modest skirt or dress. Hence he didn’t know if she was modern or traditional Orthodox, and since she was possibly the latter (and hence would not touch a male, except for, e.g. her father, brother or whomever she would marry), hadn’t ever offerred to shake her hand when the first met. Upon seeing her wearing pants, he knew she was modern Orthodox and hence likely would shake his hand.

    It still sounded awfully funny …

  53. I remember the last time we had weather like this. I think it was like 1998, and we had a backyard barbeque the day after x-mas. In INDIANA. Of course, late march, early april we had 4 feet of snow.

    I do however, wish it would freeze, because my allergies are driving me nuts.

    In march, I will be back to b**ch about the snow piled up to my windows.

  54. Zuzu, you might or might not have felt a need to wear pants, depending on how big the T-shirt was.

    DAS, I am truly delighted by your explanation of the Rabbi’s exclamation.

  55. We up in your mountainz stealin’ all your snowz

    Heh. My haircutter just called postponing Friday’s appointment. Seems she’s heard that we’re in for our fourth Friday blizzard in a row. All the forecasts I’ve found show flurries with possible accumulation so I’m hoping she’s just taking rumors too much to heart.

    I saw a newsbit on the weird weather the other day. They showed some idiot out east saying, “global warming rocks!” Ugh. After watching An Inconvenient Truth every day of unseasonable weather brings me down.

  56. Aha so you’ve stolen our summer have you (Christchurch just about had a white freaking christmas three days after summer solstice)?

    We demand it back!

  57. Annamal- you can have the summer back if you promise to take the humidity, mold and allergens as well. I could do without having my summer allergy season extended into my winter months. And I miss the white Christmas- it just isn’t the same thing at all. (Whine and complain, whine and complain… maybe I got a little of it out of my system…aaaachoooooo!, nope, back again)

  58. I’m still waiting for winter here in North Carolina. Unlike zuzu, we had the nice fall colors. The colorful leaves have mostly blown down, but as far as I can tell, it’s still fall. I’ve been going around without my coat most of the time.

  59. Cold and rainy here in the UK. Just like it’s supposed to be. We haven’t had a really cold snap yet here, which is unusual, and I’ve only had to scrape ice off the car once (I didn’t have to get the scraper out at all the year before). We haven’t had snow in my part of the country for two years. I miss it.

    There is something very, very wrong about this weather… How can anyone deny climate change?

  60. Over the millenia the magnetic poles have flipped on a regular basis and according to Scientific American not only are we way, way overdue but there are signs that it could happen at any time. Any science geeks out there know if this might affect the weather?

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