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| This just out from Charlie Notis who is now retired
"Winter was over before it began this season. Back in November, I posted that this would be a winter without a winter as winters go around here. For the most part, that long range outlook was decent although we did have a few bouts with cold and some snow. There was NO consistent cold.
For the nation as whole this will rank as a top 5 warmest winter since records have been kept for the U.S. as a whole. The Northern Hemisphere as a whole had an incredibly warm winter (definitely a winter without a winter). And, I told you guys a long time ago that a warm winter such as the one we just had for the U.S. is always followed by a hot summer. To add fuel to the fire, one of the strongest El Nino's ever is starting to weaken now and that's not good news for the agricultural industry. This increases the odds of a dry summer in the Midwest (as well as being hot) dramatically.
I am more certain about what is going to take place in the summer than I am about this spring. At this point, the best analogue year is 1983 when we had a wet spring and planting delays. This was followed by a hot summer (especially August which was the hottest on record). However, I think this spring will be a lot warmer than it was in 1983 so perhaps that analogue year may not hold. Could it be like 1988 or 1912? Well for that to happen it will have to be a very warm and DRY spring. As I stated above, I am very confident of a hot summer regardless of what kind of spring we have.
By the way, this past Thursday was more than 2 degrees Celsius above normal for the Northern Hemisphere for the first time in recorded history. This was a VERY important threshold. Climate scientists were not expecting to see this until a few decades down the road. This threshold was reached only for a few hours on Thursday and it is hoped that it may be a while until we see 2 degrees above normal on a consistent record. But it was an incredible milestone that was not expected to be seen yet.
Here is some more incredible data. February taken as a whole, crushed all the monthly temperature records which were set in January. And, January crushed all the monthly temperature records which had been set in December. Truly amazing stuff, ladies and gentlemen.
By the way, the short answer to your question above is, no, I don't see any more true winter weather in the near or distant future this season. March looks VERY warm. Maybe it will be the warmest on record and beat that of February for the globe as a whole."
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weather forecast?
