I agree, although I moved to Maine just in time for that blizzard. But when we moved back there was still a winter that would actually happen. Last real blizzard to hit the NE was in 86 imo. 93 was timid, I actually camped out in that one, last what a day and half maybe? 86 was like 3 days long. We are still waiting on winter to happen this season...
I've kept a phenology journal, including weather for over 30 years. The weather in terms of temperatures seems pretty routine here over the last few decades. The main difference over the last 10 years is that we get more and bigger heavy rain events, particularly in the summer months. Like savemoney said I haven't had a brown lawn here in August in many years. Many people around here have had wet basement issues for years as well. I switched from row gardening and tilling to no-till raised garden beds due to root rot in many plants like asparagus, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes that don't particularly like wet feet, or are prone to rotting in the ground. I haven't watered my garden in years either except to keep soil moist to germinate seeds at times. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that eventually we will get a long period of drier weather that will last several years or so. The last time we had that type of a cycle was in the mid to late 80s. Of course the 30s dust bowl years were famous for hot and dry weather here in the midwest.
While I see some changes in the weather they are hard to characterize. There is definitely less snow in the winter, and warmer spells during the summer. BUT they are inter-spaced with blizzards and cool summer weeks. To say I see a change in climate would be difficult since the change is so slight. As mentioned in a post above, I would need years of data to analyze and compare to see if there are trends. I don't have those resources. What I can see is the results of something changing. I live near the water on a calm bay. My friend's great-grandfather opened a seafood place right on the water, between a road and a pleasant beach. For over 100 years it stayed in the family and grew into a pretty large tourist trap. In the beginning they would occasionally have damage from flooding during major storms, maybe once every few years. As the storms & flooding got more frequent they redesigned the space moving the kitchen & machinery rooms upstairs, out of harms way. They also had a dining room and open air deck for customers up there. If a storm was coming they moved all the furnishings from the main, lower, dining room upstairs. Minimized damage from the storms. They built a seawall, raised the slab the structure was on, slowly moved further and further from the water. No matter what they did the damage kept getting worse year after year. Their insurance got prohibitively expensive. They slowly had to downsize the place. Their last small place closed a few years ago, no longer viable. Now when you walk past the area you can see the remnants of the seawall out in the water and the waves breaking on the broken slab. Every moon tide washes all the way up to the road. But the water level has only risen a couple of inches over those years. I fear what will happen if it keeps rising... Theirs is not the only property that is now under water. Our village is pretty old, some of the structures in town date back to the 1600s. When you look at the property maps for the water front homes many of the lots extend under water. These properties went to the mean high-water line when they were originally surveyed. If you look at the tax rolls, a number of owners have petitioned the town to abandon, for tax & liability reasons, the property below the current high water line. Something is happening. Are we the cause? Don't know. But if we don't take some sort of action, as we did with the ozone, acid rain, and oil consumption, the sea level appears to be set to rise some more. KaptJaq
But the Earth is sensitive when it comes to to temperature change. During the last ice age, the global average was approximately 8 degrees cooler.
Just speaking anecdotally, nowhere near the snowfall of the 1970's. I grew in a snowmobiling family, and it was common for us to put 1,000 miles on a machine every season-no trips just daily riding-and I was only a teenager. Also there doesn't seem to be a spring-it seems to go from 35 to 75 in a day. Also notice more severe rainstorms. We experienced severe flooding in 2006 and 2011.
The thing about the weather is that in the end, no matter how hot or cold or wet it dry it was at any particular time you got the average.
I think it has, got warmer for whatever the reason - probably all that hot air the folks in DC spew out nonstop. Lived in same county in western NY all my life. I remember as a kid it would regularly snow before Halloween and around Thanksgiving the snow would stick for good, the ground stayed mostly snow-covered-white till March. Now I’m in my mid fifties and that don’t happen anymore. Lakes & bays I remember being mostly rock solid ice most of winter as a kid - not so much anymore.
I am pretty sure that as a kid, we had snow and cold that stayed until Spring, once it arrived. Now a good snowstorm will lay down a blanket of snow that will be gone in a week or two. I suspect 90% of snow mobiles in Indiana have been sold off in the past 30 years.
Seems to get just as cold here, but it doesn't stay cold as long. Less snow. No ice storms since '09 thank goodness. Cooler, wetter summers for the last several years. I'll take those but the grass doesn't even slow down until it gets cool. Milder seasons overall.
Local bodies of water don't freeze over anymore. Gone are the ice fishing derbies, pond hockey, and ice-out fund raisers. The earth has had cycles of warm and cold. Seems we're in a warm one.
Snow totals sure have dropped off here the last 10 years. Still seams to stay cold through the winter. Rarely used to get an East wind. I’d bet 50% of the time over the last 3-4 years the wind comes out of the East and is typically cooler with less humidity and precipitation.
Well one measure that it is used to measure this is called heating degree days (there is also cooling degree days). This is a yearly figure for a specific area. The higher the heating degree days number the more heating is required. It is similar with cooling degree days (higher the figure the more cooling required). This number for a specific area changes depending on how cold of a winter or hot of a summer. From what I have heard and read this heating figure trending down in most if not all areas while cooling degree days is trending up. Thus from a heating required perspective it isn't just our imagination that winters are getting warmer.
Aren't a lot of the places where temps are recorded within cities? Aren't cities (for the most part) nothing but thermal masses? Think of all the concrete, asphalt, structures, etc that do nothing more than collect solar gain. Yeah, I suppose the temps are gonna be averaging warmer with that in mind. The earth is 4.5 billion years old (we're told) and records have been kept for the last 120-140 years on temps and trends? And with that little bit of info, judgements can be made?
I enjoy more temperate weather that we now have. No reason to move further south, such as Tennessee ( which I would probably like). The only downside is, I worry about the expansion of water moccasins. My tree farm is near the Ohio river, and we enjoy swimmin' in our little lake. I would hate to worry about those things when I want to take a dip. There are some in the Indiana, but in a few pockets, here and there.
