Will We Have a Winter this Year??

western oregon in the united states here.

cold but no rain or snow. i'd like to see some rain, but i'm ok with a mild winter.


-subfab

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


Its very mild here in England, well the South anyway.... last night i could have taken a walk in just a long sleeved top!!

Yes, it seems we only have 3 seasons here now but i'm not realy complaing because it means those Energy Companies wont be getting much cash from me this winter period!!! And that means no bonuses for the CEO's!!!!

Same here in germany.. its great. I love it. I hate winter.

Moscow, Russia here.

Since Autumn we have had warm and humid weather. With frequent windstorms and lots of rain and temperatures above 0 C until yesterday or so. Yesterday the temperatures dropped to around -2 C and it began to snow heavily. From yesterday till today we had at least two inches of wet snow that fell. It clings to everything and makes the scenery very winter-ish and pretty. Though we are still a good 5 degrees Celsius above the average temperature for January. So it has been a very (abnormal) warm winter so far. Before the snowfall, we almost had bare earth and green grass sticking out.

Now the Norwegian MetOffice shows Moscow to have up to -23 C and my hometown, which is close by to have -26 C on the 17th of January. But since it is a long-term model those values change every day. And it seems they are changing to the milder side. So we'll have a short cold snap, and then again a long, mild period. And as all warm and humid periods above our glorious city, this one is caused by active low pressure systems. They make the winds come from the west and south, bringing warm, humid air from Europe. For Moscow to have cold weather, we need the Siberian High Pressure Area to extend Westwards and push any low pressure systems to the sides, weakening them.

And as far as I can remember this has not happened before. At least not in ten years, our last winter was cold and snow filled. And it began around December. So there you have it. I could put up some simple Excel graphs for the average temperatures and air pressure as seen from my home thermometer and spring (mechanical, not season of the year) barometer as large pictures. Being a hobby meteorologist and all I take hourly measures. I am also thinking of making a Sturmglass to see if its random crystal formation and dissipation is accurate.

reply to post by DontTreadOnMe


I'm also concerned. There has maybe been a week to week and a half of cold weather this whole winter. Half of the days this 'winter' have been warm enough to wear shorts and t-shirts. I'm definitely concerned about the state of the climate in the world.

I have two house, one in NYC and one in upstate New York.

Winter is close to normal here in the mountains of upstate New York.

Snowfall three feet plus since October, more snow this week, no major storm in the forecast as of yet. still a lot of winter left.

But yes i've seen flying insects.now where its warm one day freezing an other. no real snow yet this year.

but a lot of flying insects each year more and more, one of my rose bushes still has green leaves and is starting to bud. now that is strange.

I gotta say the winters in NYC from when i was a kid growing up are now totally different. Its been a lot warmer as a whole of winters of late, years ago it got cold and stayed cold from late October until spring and much more snow, and no insects at all.

I agree, its been unually warm here in the upper south of America as well, normally we get to about 30 or 40 with dips into the 20s quite often but its been strangley warm, mostly 50s and low 60s even some days

In south of England it seems like the only thing keeping us cold is the clouds, yesterday we saw a break in the cloud cover and it actually felt like mid spring because of the heat, was very nice

reply to post by kdog1982


True, that was a one off, the entire spring and Summer thus far from that exception has just been overcast and wet.

Toronto - No snow on sight... temperature is fluctuating from -1 to 5~ Celcius.

I think the season has shifted down slightly... so the Winter is going to go bit into Spring, Spring bit into Summer, and Summer bit into Autumn.

I wonder if summer is going to be a bit hotter than usual.

Snow particularly higher than normal amounts, is not necessarily an indicator of normal winter weather. Large volumes indicate greater evaporation due to heat and lake effect snow increases if, for example, Lake Ontario has a lower ice coverage. So it could be argued that this is the 3rd year in a row of warmer winters in New York.

Yes, as someone else said about Toronto, it was a green Christmas, no snow, and my heating bill this year will be the lowest I've ever seen since living in Toronto. But I love it because I hate winter.

Its been pretty cool in the south. It has been the first time I didn't have to use my coat outside, I've just worn my hoodie whenever I'm out now. I think it may have just been a heavy wind factor making it cold. It seems to be getting really warm now. I don't like it cause I love the winter, its my favorite season. It sucks that it only lasted a month.

Maybe the seasons could be changing.. maybe we'll get a real winter once every 2 years lol I'm going to have to move to a cooler state in that case.

I'm glad someone made a thread about this.

I'm here in the great not so white north of Saskatchewan, Canada. We have been having the warmest winter on record. Normally we should be in the middle of the coldest weather of the year, between -15 to -30°c. It has been above freezing consistently. Although I've been enjoying the mild weather, I do find it unnerving and it definitely isn't normal.

I believe 2012 will be a very strange year.

Spring arrives early in Britain following mild winter weather

And in the US, Plains shatter warm weathe records, set historic high temperatures

But, in contrast, Austria hit by heavy snow whilst Alaska town tries to dig out from heavy snow dump and in India Himachal towns get snow after 35 years

And, as if to really rub it in for all us northern snow lovers, even in Australia, in mid summer, flaky forecasts as state ready for summer snow

So there is cold and snow about. Just not in all the right places

Anyone here from like far north of Canada? i wonder how the weather is there, from a local resident's perspective, not TV info.

and if the melting rate of Iceberg and Glaciers have increased or not.

i'm expecting that the warm winter will turn to an unusually cold winter late in the season. we got to freezing kind of early (i'm in central texas) but then it got warm again. warmer than i ever remember it being in january but i keep saying i think it will snow which is unusual. if it does it will be the third year in a row we've had snow... VERY unusual.

Here in central Texas the drought continues. The main water reservoir for our area is 12' (FEET!) below normal. We're on stage 3 water restrictions- outside watering only twice monthly, no new landscaping allowed, etc. It is very likely we will have to go to stage 4 water restrictions before summer starts- all outside watering will be prohibited at that point as well as washing of cars, topping off ornamental fountains, etc. Temperature-wise this fall and winter we've had some days that got us down into the "normal" temp range, but we've had a lot of days that were well above normal too. It hasn't been unusual to see days in which the highs are 15 degrees above normal. If the summer is as brutally hot as it was last year and we have to start it with severe water restrictions, it's going to be a record setting summer in every bad way possible. The crop yields will be zilch, structural damage will be widespread (central Texas is mostly black clay and if it dries out too much there can be severe structural movement/ settling) and lawns and landscaping will be lost. Losses will be tremendous, in the billions I would think. But if we get a lot of rain this winter and spring then we will dodge the bullet again like we did several years ago when unusually high rainfall abruptly ended a brutal drought. Here's hoping and praying for rain.

Same thing happening in Oklahoma. We had 70 degree weather the other week. What is up with this??

Pole shift!?? :O

Thanks for this thread, as I have been thinking about the same very thing.

Last year we had (in day-time) -15C, and this year we have around 8-10C.
I haven't seen a grain of snow this year, and last year we had the strongest winter in a long, long time.
All though it is storming a lot here in Denmark this year

I'm still wondering about it.
But thanks again for starting the thread.