Seen on the AP wire:
Earlier blooms. Less snow to shovel. Unseasonable warm spells. Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been.
A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average.
Of course, perhaps the researchers could have chosen a better time to make their press release. There’s something not quite right about reading such an article when I’m bracing for an early morning to clear the driveway from the latest nor’easter.