This morning I spotted my first snowflake of the year while walking through Washington Sq. Park. Others spotted it, and recorded it. The National Weather Service recorded the snow officially at 9:55am in Central Park, making this the latest occurrence of the first winter snowfall in the park since records began more than 100 years ago. Without getting too deep in my nerd weather talk, there is a definite pattern shift occurring, and temps should be normal (around 33 for highs, which we’ll be above today) or below normal over the next month or so. I’m also excited by the timing because Feb historically is the snowiest month for New York City, with almost all of the major snowstorms in city history occurring in the month. In fact, there’s some proof a decent Nor’easter could occur in the next 10-15 days.
With the new cold in NYC came the announcement yesterday, that 2006 was the warmest year ever recorded worldwide, and about 1.2 degrees above the normal worldwide mean temp of 55F. That may not sound like much, but is significant and most likely a record soon to be broken again (most likely in next 5-10 years). Six of the 10 warmest winters in US history have occurred in the last 15 years, and I think we’ll continue to break records like this. Winters like this will continue to accelerate the melting of Artic Ice cover, until we are free of Artic Ice cover in summertime of 2040 (hard to believe!), according to a study released last month, which quite frankly would be very, very bad.
I’m not proclaiming the end of the world, nor am I saying we should all go out and buy hybrids, I’m just presenting some more background on this winter’s unbelievable weather, that some say has not been seen since before the last ice ages occurred roughly 110,000 years ago. That’s pretty amazing.
Oh well, now on to check out the odds over at tradesports (yes, you can gamble on weather, crazy) for NYC snowfall..I think the 10inches contract looks good!
Life Putting 