Image credit: Cujo359See this cherry tree? I took this photo today. There are blossoms already. This thing will probably be in full bloom before March arrives. When I first moved to this area eighteen years ago, this was happening in mid-March, not mid-February.
This has been one of the mildest, if not the mildest, winters I've experienced in the Northwest. It followed one of the hottest summers. It might be cold on the East Coast at the moment, but it's warm out here, and has been for some time.
So, the next time you want to call people who are warning you that the world is warming up stupid, or shrill, just because it happens to be cold and snowy where you are at the moment, I suggest you think about the cherry blossoms. Out here. Then contemplate what "average" means.
4 comments:
The blossoms are already out in San Jose, California too. Some trees were in bloom right at the beginning of the month. But since it is snowing in FL and DC that proves that climate change is just hooey; never mind Australia is cooking under one of the worst summers on record.
Yup, nothing to see here, move along, move along.
My sister, who lives in DC, says it hasn't been all that cold on the East coast either. Just lots of snow.
"... contemplate what "average" means."
Does that not require some degree of numerical literacy? Good luck with that one.
Once upon a time, long ago, in New Mexico, spring would arrive with fruit trees all in blossom until the "Good Friday" freeze would catch them out. Most years there would be precious little fruit, but not from lack of trying. IIRC as well, the heaviest snowfall was always in springtime, reason being the increasing warmth also increased the meandering of the jet stream bringing both more warmth northward and more cold south in the process. In Ireland too, the mountains got their heaviest snowfall in the springtime as well, same warming phenomenon.
Snow with warmer winter weather is the pattern I'm used to. "Too cold for snow" was a phrase heard occasionally where I grew up in PA. A storm front is usually either preceded or followed by warmer air, so I suppose that makes sense.
And, yes Expat, numeric literacy does seem to be too much to ask of Americans these days.
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