First day of winter and it feels like spring

Greetings from Northern Minnesota. Today is the first day of winter and the temperature outside here is 33 degrees. We have zero snow on the ground and it is looking like we will not have any until January. This is extremely rare for this part of the country.

We normally start getting snow in November, and last year on Thanksgiving we were creamed with a blizzard. This Thanksgiving we were outside playing football and it was almost 60 degrees. We are breaking temperature records on a daily basis. I am starting to wonder if there really is something strange going on with the weather.

Forcasts for the rest of the winter however call for the coldest winter in 50 years which scares the hell out of me. We usually end up with a week or so of highs below zero during a normal winter. I cant even begin to imagine what a record breaking cold winter would feel like.

So ATS I ask you, where you are living is the weather normall for you for this time of year or are you experiencing an anomoly like I am.

Forcast for Christmas Day here is a high of 38. No white christmas but it will sure be fun to play with my daughter outside without fear of frost bite.

Yeah, I hoping for some snow but I think we might just get a drizzle here and drizzle there.
Maybe next year.

But, watch the snow come exactly on x-mas.

Usually happens that way.

Every winter is different here in the Midwest, so I don't know how to classify "normal". We've already had 6 inches of snow fall (the week after Thanksgiving) but now it warmed up a bit so it's just warm enough to rain instead of snow.

Im from Northern NY, Tug Hill region which is notorious for having atleast 6 feet of snow build up by winters end.
We have 0 inches as of now! its 35 each day! somethings up
And i cant Ski

reply to post by Dillon123


I can sort of relate to sking thing, My daughter got a brand new sled for her birthday a few weeks ago and we have an awesome hill behind our house. She wants to go sledding so bad. This time last year she probably had gone sledding at least 50 times.

Global warming. It causes ingrown toenails, premature male pattern baldness, early menopause, extended pms, soggy potato chips, tread separation on car tires and occasionally, warmer weather.

You can bet your sweet bippy that a warmer than usual winter will be force-fed to the world as global warming. Nevermind that mild winters, normal winters and cold winters have run the cycle since the damned planet first sprouted bi-peds.

As a native New Yorker (Upstate) I am loving the weather here. It was in the 40's today but is dropping now due to the rain. I'll take the rain over snow any day. We had snow on Halloween this year and a couple weeks ago but by mid morning/next day it was gone. Hopefully the Earth is changing it's axis and we'll get Caribbean weather in a few years one can dream right?

Something very screwy is going on.

I live in Sydney Australia and for the past month or so, it has been overcast all day and rainy (except for a few patches of sun on a couple of days), plus it has been unusually cold for this time of year, with temperatures hovering around 20ºC. Heck, I've even had to wear a scarf and an overcoat a few times this month.

Normally at this time of year, it should be hot. 30+ºC, we should be wearing shorts and tshirts and swimming at the beach.

El Nino? La Nina? Or something else going on?

reply to post by lcbjr1979


We just started summer here in Australia and though winter and spring were warm enough which is usually the case (in the state I live in) The first day of summer was the coldest recorded in 52 years. It was freezing.

I know what you're saying. I'm in east-central Iowa. 37F and no snow at all. In fact, no snow is predicted until next Wednesday. Then it says flurries.

As for this being the coldest winter in the last 50 years, I've seen some damn cold winters in the last 50 years. I'm talking actual temps of -30 and wind chills of -50 and below.

I know the weather has been changing. I believe, though, that it's a natural fluctuation. As far as I'm concerned, it can stay like this until spring, then warm up. I wouldn't care if it never snowed again.

reply to post by redoubt


Please no common sense allowed for Al's groopies

reply to post by lcbjr1979


I live in Birmingham UK. On this day last year (The shortest day) the temperature here was -18c. Today the temperature is +12c Thats a temperature range differance of 30C

reply to post by N3k9Ni


I am totally with ya on that. I could care less if snow fell, I love how warm it is right now. This lack of snow should also help us in the spring. I am in the Red River Valley and lately every spring it floods pretty bad, hopefully this next spring the river will stay in its banks.

Yep shortest day of the year and its 57 ºF, a high of 62 ºF, its great, saving lots of money on utility bills. A couple years ago it was -17 ºF, and below zero for about a month straight, an expensive winter from Halloween to mid April. So I welcome the moderate weather, the summer was mild also, just one really hot month. Last winter wasn't bad, moderate snow moderate cold, the summer was hot.

Maybe it's the methane?

yeah, 36 degrees here, today. for all everyone complains about "Wisconsin winters", i haven't seen much to complain about yet this year!

bet we'll get 5 feet of snow 'round about April again...

It's thirty degrees right now in Northern NY(along the Canadian border) and raining like crazy. We're supposed to have a dusting of snow by Christmas. I'm grateful for the warm weather. I'm going to save on fuel this year.

Here in the tropics it's...tropical.
Rainy because it's the rainy season. Cool because it's winter.

It's like that where I am too. I'm in the north west of the U.K and the weather has been weird for weeks. For the last two years it's been really cold and what you'd expect winter to be, but it's so mild right now. Tonight it's 13 Celcius and warmer now (1:52am) than it has been all day.
It's been windy for weeks too, really windy. And there's rain too every night without fail at roughly the same time. Which is odd to me.

It's the first day of winter too, or summer depending where you are. Ironic? or coincedence?
The Solstice is also upon us, great timing maybe?

I'm wondering if anything may happen in the next few days, after all the 25th was celebrated by some pagan religions as the day the the sun returned. Now that would be would be a weird coincedence if it happned.

But it's probably just a spell of genuine mild weather and I'm connecting invisible dots because I like to think about what if's and and maybes.

Except for yesterday, which was unseasonably warm for December in Maryland, it's been cold and the sky has looked very wintery. That is why I was shocked to see that my daffodils have come up! I've seen plants get tricked by warm weather before but not the daffodils. They sent up about four to five inches of growth right through frosty winter weather. I just don't get it. The deer have come by and chewed them down right quick, though.