Warm January

For anyone in the Northeast, it has been a very disappointing winter. Since our freak snowstorm before Halloween, we've had much more precipitation as rain (several inches) than snow (less than a foot). This past weekend'spond hockey tournament, after being postponed several weeks ago, still had logistical problems of all kinds trying to keep the rinks from getting too chewed up. Ski areas have struggled even to keep their man-made base, as daytime highs have been routinely above freezing. We've also been effected by the lack of snow elsewhere: if it doesn't snow in NYC or Boston, no one down there thinks to come up here - just not in the mood. Anecdotally, some have seen their crocuses and daffodils poking up through the (not at all frozen) ground. In some places they are already sugaring. My relations in Rochester inform me that they've received barely two feet of snow all winter, for an area that routinely receives 100"+ each year!

To illustrate just how outta whack things have been, consider this graphic:

I worry that B isn't going to grow up to be a cold-hardened Yankee!