NY's December snowless for first time in 129 years (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

So ... you call this winter?

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Crocuses are pushing out of the ground in New Jersey. Ice fishing tournaments in Minnesota are being canceled for lack of ice. And golfers are hitting the links in Chicago in January.

Much of the Midwest and the East Coast are experiencing remarkably warm winter, with temperatures running 10 and 20 degrees higher than normal in many places.

"I'm not complaining. I can take this," said Rudolph Williams, a doorman in New York City who normally wears a hat this time of year but stood outside in 50-degree weather with his shaved head uncovered.

"The Earth is recalibrating itself: Last year, we had a cold winter, and it's balancing itself out now. In January, it feels like the middle of April."

New York City saw a November and December without snow for the first time since 1877. And New Jersey had its warmest December since records started being kept 111 years ago.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/01/04/warm.winter.ap/index.html

[Dawgs]

1. Uh, last year I was in Toledo, Ohio in November and...

the temperature was in the low sixties.

Are Americans really this dumb?

[eppur_se_muova]

3. And there were red poles on the fire hydrants, meant to stick up above the snow...

so that snowplows would not hit the fire hydrants. But there was no snow. Evidently this is not what one normally expects in Toledo in the Winter.

[Tuesday_Morning]

2. "The earth is recalibrating itself"?

Really.

[freethought]

4. I was just in Boston yesterday!

I was in Waltham, just a hop and a skip from Downtown Boston. Spending the night in my sister's apartment. When I was on my way out I looked at the lawn. Usually they're yellowish-brown, but what I saw was as green as spinach.
To make matters even more bizzare, it actually looked like it needed to be mowed, and it's f_____g December!!!