A flood watch is now in effect for the lakes region for Thursday. This is for the potential of river flooding due to ice jams. Currently the rivers are mostly frozen but the warm temperatures (which hit 55 on the island today!) and a good dose of rain on the way have the potential to make the rivers rise... lifting their ice and carrying it downstream where it may dam up and cause flooding.
In addition, another powerful northeaster is looking more likely for Friday and Saturday. Stay tuned to weather forecasts if you have plans for those days.
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Originally Posted by rander7823
Okay weatherbuffs
From Mid-Dec to Mid Jan temps were above normal and from Mid-Jan to a week or so ago they were below.....Has everything averaged out yet or are the glaciers still melting?
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The nearest climate records for comparison are from Concord Airport. For the winter (Dec-Jan-Feb) the temperature averages are:
December 2006: 33.9 F (normal 25.9)
January 2007: 25.5 F (normal 20.1)
February 2007: 18.8 F (normal 23.3)
OVERALL: 26.1 F (normal 23.1)
Therefore, believe it or not, the winter averaged out 3 degrees above normal in Concord. Many other New England locations also averaged out 2 or 3 degrees above normal for winter 2006-07. Most of this is due to the fact that the temperatures for the first half of the winter were above normal to a much greater degree than the temps of the second half were below normal. In plain English, "Way above normal + slightly below normal = slightly above normal."
The breakdown of the extreme warmth of the first half of the winter coincides with the breakdown of the El Nino that we had since November. The cold air had been pooling to our north all along, but could not make any moves southward until the pattern changed, and it is likely that El Nino was responsible for that pattern.
The glaciers are still melting. Climate change is different from weather change. Think of *weather* as "What happened on Wall Street this month," while *climate* is "What has your stock done over the past 30 years." The climate has been slowly warming (the stock of the top corporations is worth more than it was 30 years ago) while the weather has had its mood swings (Dot-com crashes and real estate spikes).