Flint just broke the record for high temperatures, for February 18

[Siwsan]

It was set in 1994, at 56 degrees. We are now at 60, and climbing. The forecast for the week calls for temperatures in the 50's and 60's until Saturday, when it might become seasonal, again. We'll see.

I'm pleased to have the chance to get a jump start on clearing away winter debris from my flower beds but, at the same time, I feel discomforted. This has been the second relatively mild and 'low snow' winter in a row after two snow and cold record breaking winters.

Of course, we could still get buried in snow, between now and May.

I guess the new weather "normal" is anyone's guess.

[Dem2]

1. Is this any different than Republicans claiming a snowstorm means that global warming isn't real?

Not sure I see the purpose in this.

Here in the Northeast - today being a hot day is going to be maybe 50 degrees - which is nice but not out of the norm. If it depends on your location, then it is just as likely to be weather variations.

[Siwsan]

3. You lost me

How did I express that global warming isn't real? And the "purpose" is simply sharing some information on a Saturday afternoon. Nothing more nefarious than that.

[femmedem]

5. It's just one data point among many, but the trend is clear and terrifying.

Link to tweet

[Dem2]

6. Only a fool would deny the existence of global warming / climate change

Obviously that wasn't my point. I'm an engineer not somebody sticks their finger in the air and says oh my God I can detect a one degree change in the worldwide temperature. Yes there may be wild swings -that's possible - maybe even set records - but I have no proof. I'm not a climate scientist, but I know enough to know that I don't know for sure if this particular phenomenon is related. I'm the Northeast temperatures are relatively normal this year so what am I supposed to think? Should I draw conclusions from that as well?

[femmedem]

9. In January, the average temperature in the Northeast was 6.8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

Normal being the 20th-century average. I live in Connecticut, and tomorrow is going to be nearly 60 degrees outside.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/national/201701


You're right, of course: any single day's temperature in any single place can't be attributed to climate change. I'm not arguing with you. But the OP was talking about record highs, and there are an awful lot of record highs over the past year, and very few record lows.

[Dem2]

10. Every year seems to break records somewhere

As a New Hampshirite, I was actually hoping February would be as warm as January was. It's just now starting to show an early spring pattern. I'll take it. 😊

[malaise]

7. The you have not been paying attention

https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3558
<snip>

This is February? 80°F in Denver, 99° in Oklahoma, 66° in Iceland, 116° in Australia
By: Bob Henson , 4:17 PM GMT on February 14, 2017

The strong, recurrent Pacific jet stream that’s been delivering massive amounts of rain to California has also been pushing mild Pacific air downslope off the Rockies and eastward, keeping the southern two-thirds of the U.S. absurdly warm for early February. From New Mexico to Virginia southward to the Gulf Coast, trees and shrubs are budding out en masse up to three weeks ahead of schedule (see Figure 1). In Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth recorded its last freezing temperature on January 8. With no freezes expected into at least the last week of the month, there’s a chance that the Jan. 8 reading of 20°F will be DFW’s last freeze of the winter. That would eclipse the earliest final freeze of the season (Feb. 5, 2000), in records extending back to 1899. The February warmth comes after a three-month span that was milder in Texas than any Nov/Dec/Jan period since the 1930s Dust Bowl, according to state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon.

The warm, moist air prevailing along the South has been teaming up with occasional jet-stream intrusions to produce severe thunderstorms, including an unusually large number of tornadoes for the year thus far. This includes six confirmed tornadoes across southeast Louisiana on February 7, with an EF3 twister causing more than 30 injuries and damaging or destroying more than 600 homes in and near East New Orleans (see the detailed National Weather Service survey report on all six tornadoes). As of February 13, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center had tallied 163 U.S. tornadoes for the year thus far, not quite a record but far above average. On Tuesday morning, NOAA/SPC placed parts of the western and central Gulf Coast under a slight risk of severe weather, with a small enhanced-risk area along the central Texas coast near a large thunderstorm complex that had already produced several tornado reports west of Houston.

[Dem2]

8. Certainly there may be other things in the news that have kept me from noticing this

But thanks for bringing this to my attention because I've heard these numbers (mostly here on DU) and I wasn't even sure what to think. Here in the Northeast, we were thinking we were out of this winter doing pretty well and then air came down from Canada and slammed us with three snow storms in a row, thus we are not as inundated with abnormal weather as the people in the southwest area. These three storms brought us up to normal snowfall levels for a typical winter time and temperatures are above normal but not like last year. It is f****** nuts what is happening in that area though.

[Warpy]

2. The new normal is going to be wild swings and hellacious storms

What California went through in the last couple of days is being described as a "weather bomb" of high winds and heavy rain.

Weather in NM has been "typical," if you can ever call the desert typical of anything.

I have to think the climate at the end of the last Ice Age went through changes like this one, which is why people had to turn to wild grains to store so they'd have something to eat when the regular food supply failed.

[Siwsan]

4. We had a very cold, snowy winter followed by a very hot and dry summer - yes to seeing wild swings

Our two winters under that 'polar vortex' were brutal for both frigid temperatures and extreme snow fall. And last summer was searing hot and we went weeks between any precipitation and I went for over a month without mowing the lawns, which is unprecedented in the 10 years I've been a home owner.

I guess we are entering the 'take the weather day by day' phase.

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. 71 in KC

My crocus are blooming. I couldn't believe it.