6:30 AM and I am getting ready to leave the house for work, I put on my pea coat, wrap a scarf around my neck and pack some gloves in my bag. It is early January and experience has taught me it is cold around this time of year in NY. I step outside and it is unusually warm, as I walk to the train station a drop of sweat runs down my forehead. I start to get uncomfortable warm with all the layers I am wearing and have to take my scarf off as it begins to make me sweat. I ask myself, it’s January why am I warm?!
The north eastern united states has been plagued by unusually warm weather. Some claim that it is due to global warming, others that is just a temporary climate shift. Records show over the past hundreds of years temperatures have been steadily climbing:

“Meteorologists say the warm spell is due to a combination of factors: El Nino, a cyclical warming trend now under way in the Pacific Ocean, can lead to milder weather, particularly in the Northeast; and the jet stream, the high-altitude air current that works like a barricade to hold back warm Southern air, is running much farther north than usual over the East Coast. “
This could very well explain the strange weather, yet I believe it is due to global warming. Records show that after the industrial revolution CO2 levels have sky rocketed.

Who knows? The northeast might be experiencing a warm winter but the plains have been plagued with blizzard after blizzard. Mother nature has truly gone haywire.
I sure hope it just a temporary change and that this is not a result of our wreck less damage to the environment. Let say this continues year after year, we might not have a winter after all. But lets leave all the worrying to the meteorologists and enjoy the warm weather while it’s here! BBQ anyone?