Christmas brought our first whisper of snow here in southern MA. It was just that though, a whisper, nothing stuck. All the while El Paso TX, once our home had inches to play in. Why oh why did not more of the country have a white Christmas?
Very few places in America saw snow this holiday.
Figure 1. Departure of temperature from average over the 30-day period ending on December 22, 2011. Image credit: NOAA/CPC.
November ranked as the 25th warmest November in the 117-year record and it does not look like that is likely to change over the coming winter months. But still the question is why? Global warming?
Positive Arctic Oscillation (PAO)! The hard winters are seen in the negative arctic oscillation. Is PAO rare? Not at all. For the century before 1970’s they went back and forth turning from on to the other. However since 1970’s there have been more PAO winters than NAO ones.
So during this time we can expect that states east of the Rockys will be warmer than normal, not all places though are as lucky.Greenland is bracing for a very harsh winter.
This is by no means an area I am an expert in, but one I do have an interest in as a parent looking to be more eco-friendly and informed. Not to mention being a lover of snow!
I am following you now, I love snow and isn’t it a shame how hot the weather has been for not a good snow!
So my website is http://www.armytankerswife.com leave me a comment or something so I know you are new, but great blog!