A week and a half a go there was about a foot of snow outside my window, and we were experiencing some of the coldest temperatures we've had since I moved here 25 years ago. Today it was 50 degrees and sunny. What gives?
According to our local TV weather people, we are way ahead of our average snowfall for the month January. We usually average about 10 inches total for the entire month, but this year we've already surpassed 15 inches with a week left to go. A week ago Sunday they were forecasting a week of possible ice storms and dangerous conditions. So much for that idea. By last Friday nearly all of the accumulation was completely gone due to warmer than normal temperatures. So much for the ice storms. Today there was only a handful of unmelted patches of snow left near the edges of a few parking lots.
I understand that weather forecasting is really just a crap shoot based on statistics of past weather. But I can't help but be being envious of how much slack weather forecasters get. I can understand being a little bit off. I can even understand being not close at all. But how you get from ice storms and dangerous conditions, to what feels more like Easter weather? I don't get it.
While we're on the subject, this warm weather is also killing our mountain snowpack, and the situation is getting pretty serious. If we don't get some significant additional snowfall before spring, we'll really be in a water pinch come summer.