Global warming: It's officially spring in Geneva

[muriel_volestrangler]

Daisies have been poking though the grass at Austria's St Anton resort. Azure Alpine gentians are blossoming even 3,300ft up, while spring forsythia are giving the valleys an unprecedented splash of colour. And over in the French Alps, fruit trees are already coming into bud.
...
But those wishing to consult the authentic harbinger of Alpine spring will find little consolation. Standing on the Promenade de la Treille in Geneva's old town, it is neatly marked with a plaque declaring it to be the city's "official" chestnut tree.

Every spring since 1818, a special city official has watched the tree (and two of its predecessors) to spot when it puts out its first bud, and solemnly record the date on a special noticeboard in the town hall. It usually falls some time in March, though it has at times crept forward into February. But this year, for the first time ever, the tree burst into bloom in late October - and is still sporting flowers and leaves. Winter appears, officially, to have been cancelled.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2081644.ece

[riverwalker]

1. Lilac buds in Minnesota

local news in Minnesota had a lady whose lilac bushes were sprouting buds!!

[leftchick]

2. NC needs to be rezoned for gardening

my roses are pushing out buds in December as well as my day lillies. I am also finding my tropicals not dying back and returning for another year. I think we hae gone from zone 7 to zone 8 in a couple of years.

:(

[bloom]

3. garden zones

you may have (gone from 7 to 8) - have you seen this?

http://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=54383

[leftchick]

5. just goes to show you can't fool a gardener

we are indeed now an 8. Many garden books and magazines need to be updated. Damn I now need a drink!

:(

[NNadir]

4. We disproved climate change here in New Jersey by having a cold snap

last weekend. For two or three days it was actually quite cold.

This weekend, looking at the 10 day forecast, we will barely reach freezing temperatures at night exactly once.

Tomorrow, December 18, forecast highs are 62F, 14C.

[Morgana LaFey]

6. You realize, of course, that that's no proof or disproof at all?

And in fact IMO it's a rotten thing to say without a :sarcasm: tag because it plays into the global warming deniers' ignorance-promoting arguments.

Your daily temperatures matter only in the very large scheme of things -- involving thousands of thousands of temperature readings over the year, not just a cold snap here and there now and then. In fact, some areas can actually turn colder over the long term in a global warming scenario.

Too, the warming is different at different latitudes. Arctic and Antarctic areas are warming faster -- we're losing whole towns to the sea in Alaska and northern Canada.

[NNadir]

9. I am preternaturally disinclined to use the sarcasm button.

I assure you that "global warming deniers" are not looking to my posts as a justification for their position, any more than Jerry Fawell is looking at any posts on DU to justify is position on "creationism."

[Morgana LaFey]

10. why spread disinformation ANYwhere?

And of course, your "preternatural disinclination" to use the sarcasm button on posts like this simply means that you WILL be misinterpreted (I hope it would be a misinterpretation), usually in the direction of supposing your ignorance on such a subject.

[NNadir]

11. I actually don't worry about being misinterpreted all that much.

I've been posting here a very long time, mostly on the subject of climate change and its address through the use of nuclear technology.

Believe it or not, the use of irony in writing in the English language is very old and predates the invention of the internet smiley by many hundreds of years. Of course readers have become somewhat more dependent on symbolic spoon feedings than they used to be, and maybe I'm writing for folks who are nearly as ancient as I am myself. Be that as it may, I really don't think that I'm "spreading disinformation," by noting that on occasion, it still gets cold in New Jersey.

[Morgana LaFey]

26. Ah, but that's not what you said, is it?

I'd agree if this is what you'd actually said: I really don't think that I'm "spreading disinformation," by noting that on occasion, it still gets cold in New Jersey.

What you said instead, was this, in your subject line: We disproved climate change here in New Jersey by having a cold snap (emphasis added)

Big difference. And no hint that you intended your comment as "irony."

[NNadir]

32. Whatever. I'm sure it's earth shattering if I don't give big hints.

Probably the entire scientific credibility of the global climate change concept, which relied entirely on my use of the sarcasm button for sustenance, will come apart because I have spread this horrible disinformation, in my title line no less.

I am heartily sorry, beside myself with grief actually. I may not sleep now for many months. I will probably give up writing on the internet about climate change at all, since I have grievously neglected the sarcasm button - not just once, but many times - on which all good reading and comprehension so intimately depends.

[Dirty Hippie]

7. Yesterday I saw

citrus trees covered in fruit in North Florida.

They normally do not produce in this area.

[tblue37]

8. Kansas: We keep hitting 65 degrees a week before Christmas. (eom)

[nebula]

12. It's still summer in Boston

Crazy!

------------------

Los Angeles Times


Boston feels the warmth

With temperatures 20 degrees above normal, flowers still bloom, bears aren't hibernating, and shirt-sleeves are in.

By Elizabeth Mehren, Times Staff Writer
December 17, 2006




BOSTON — Mail carriers cheerfully walked their routes, unburdened by hats or coats or boots made for blizzards. Joggers ran beside the (unfrozen) Charles River in shorts, and swimmers leapt into the sea at L Street Beach. Middle-aged guys cruised Commonwealth Avenue in top-down convertibles.

Schoolchildren skipped onto buses without gigantic down parkas. Waving goodbye on un-snowy sidewalks, their mothers looked blissful in yoga pants and T-shirts...


www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warm17dec17,0,4775240.story?coll=la-default-underdog

[proReality]

13. It's unseasonably warm in southern KY too...

my poplars lost their leaves two weeks ago and this week their spring buds appeared. Then there's our Bradford Pears and ... All have spring buds now.

[emmadoggy]

14. This is all so freaky it's just frightening.

Here in NE Iowa, we have had ONE snowfall this year (in mid-late November) - a nice one - but it is long gone and we haven't seen a snowflake since (and very little precip of any kind). Thanksgiving day was exceedingly nice - in the 50's I think and we had a day this past week that was around 50. We've had a steady streak of temps in the upper 30's and mostly well into the 40's. We have had a few really cold days - a couple weeks ago it got pretty bitter for a few days - but for here, 20's and low 30's should be more the norm (with some lower temps and at least a little snow here and there).
Now I can certainly remember a few Christmases that were unseasonably warm (and years where we haven't had much snow and brown Christmases), but they have usually been a little warm streak in the middle of the regular stuff - bound to happen now and then. But this steady, consistently above normal stuff with only a few breaks going into the normal zone (instead of the other way around) is just weird.

I know that there wasn't much of a hurricane season this year due to a La Nina, I think. Does anyone know if that might be part of why we are having the warmer winter?? Sorry, if that's a dumb question - seems to me, I remember a winter a number of years ago where a La Nina effect was discussed. I don't remember the specifics though - need to Google some info, I guess.

:scared:

[HappyWeasel]

15. Yeah...

Its been the same here, too. The shinook winds have been blowing far more frequently.

[orleans]

16. the dogs are shedding A LOT because they're getting their SPRING coats

in fucking december!

what do all these damn freaks who've insisted there is no global warming have to say about this weather lately? how do they explain it away or do they continue to jam their heads up their butts?

(it pisses me off--can you tell?)

we had a snowstorm (so wonderful that the schools were closed the first friday of december) and last week we weren't even wearing coats! wtf??

[Rottenmac]

17. Monday Morning...

and is snowing here in Munich. Usually its already been colder than this. 2 Years ago when we got married (12-2) there was good 12 inches or more on the ground. This year, up until today, i was still wearing shorts with a sweatshirt. (I run warm, and every 'local' has been staring at me like I was insane...)

Its about 3 inches right now (10:30) and no longer snowing. the temp is 4.5c and I doubt it will stay longer than mid-afternoon, but it does show promise.

My wife has an interesting theory, she believes that winter has not been completely abolished, just shoved back. Last year we had snow and hail all the way till mid-April. Shove the seasons 2 months back and thats what we have now.

Regardless, it's still crazy and not cold enough for winter.

[skids]

18. I killed a mosquito a couple of weeks ago.

I shudder to think what the bug population is going to be like up here (MA) come summer.

[democrank]

19. Saw Inconvenient Truth last night.

The that-was-then-this-is-now shots of the Colorado River stunned me as did the shot of the polar bear swimming in search of a sizeable ice floe amid tiny chunks of ice.

[riglerej]

24. Haven't seen Inconvenient Truth yet (although...

...although I *did* just sit and watch Al Gore give an "intimate" talk to several thousand geophysicists in San Francisco...yay me!), but having grown up on the Colorado River, it's worth pointing out that the primary reason it is running so low has less to do with the mountain snow pack (and by association, global warming), and more to do with the demand for water from Southern California. Of course a society that places one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world smack in the middle of a desert is as much a part of the problem as the over-production of CO2 I suppose.

[Javaman]

20. Dandelions in Austin...

Here we are in late December and just yesterday I noticed in my back yard Dandelions!!!

What the hell is with that? I have never ever in my life would have believed it unless I had seen it myself. Lo and behold there they were.

It's official, that little thing scared the shit out of me.

On edit: this past weekend I went to a x-mas party, a buddy's brother in law is from England he was telling me that there are people who are actively growing grape vines in Southern England now!

[No Exit]

33. Grape vines in southern England? "Vinland"?

Your comment about grapes just jarred a very dim memory for me. When in grade school, I vaguely remember being told that some island (north Atlantic-ish) was called "Vinland"--because of all the vines that grew there.

It was part of their telling us that the Norsemen had been to the New World some time before the year 1000.

Here's what google turned up:

"For some land-hungry Viking farmers, the most attractive land lay in the islands of the North Atlantic. Two such groups of islands, the Shetlands and Faeroes, were stepping-stones to the Norse discovery of Iceland. Between about AD 870 and 930, immigrants flocked to Iceland, which by the end of the period had an estimated population of 30 000 people.

Not much later, around AD 980, farming country was discovered along the fjords of Greenland, apparently by the outcast Eirik the Red. Immigrants arrived to build colonies on the southwestern coast of the new country, and soon the population of Greenland grew to an estimated 2000 people."

http://www.civilization.ca/educat/oracle/modules/rmcghee/page01_e.html

I am no good with geography, but aren't they describing places which, in our time, were considered "the frozen north"? (Until nowadays, that is... since we have in recent times noticed the global warming.)

Incidentally, the wingnuts and other scum have stopped railing about global warming being a "myth". Even those liars can't deny the obvious signs now. No--they've switched their railing to the following oil-company-approved propaganda: "Even if the globe is warming, it's NOT due to ANYTHING humans have ever done." Yeah, right.

[AllegroRondo]

21. Growing up in Wisconsin,

we would get our first heavy snow around the end of November / beginning of December. After that, you couldnt see the lawn until February at least. Sledding was something we planned on doing every weekend.

Now, you get the occasional heavy snow that melts off in a week or less.

[Canuckistanian]

22. I saw flies yesterday here in Canada

Flies, spiders and chipmunks. Almost unheard of in December. And I hear bears are still up and walking around.

[EnviroBat]

23. Saw a buble bee last week...

Flying around outside my window. I don't speak bee, but I think he was saying' "What the f*ck?..."

[HappyWeasel]

25. What was intresting though...

was the fact that even at 7000 ft in Wyoming it gets into the 90s in the summer now...and a year ago it hit like 65 in the dead of winter. Right now, its -5 and just snowed about 6 inches, but that has ben the exception. I am REALLY getting tired of this cover-up on global warming....what else is it? The light reflected off of Venus bounced off of swamp gas and hit a weather ballon? :tinfoilhat:

[ramapo]

27. Pretty creepy

Flowers were coming up and our rose bush was budding before a short cold snap here in NJ a week or so ago. Now, I think the garden is going to give it another shot this week as it feels like April.

This can hardly be good for the health of our gardens, shrubs, and trees here in the northeast, especially if the actual winter turns cold next month.

Can anybody knowledgeable speak to the effects of unseasonable temperature swings on plant life?

[maxsolomon]

28. colder than typical in the NW

we're below freezing again - and its not even winter yet.

record-rainfall november, snow (!) in november, worst windstorm in 40 years. its a wild year, but hopefully good for our glaciers.

[Phillycat]

29. 68 degrees yesterday in Philadelphia.

That's just wrong. Not that I'm complaining.

[GenDem]

30. Here in Western NY tulips are up about 1/2".

Been in the 50's at least a week now. Leaves are budding on the lilac trees, roses have fresh leaves and buds, too. We should have had at least 10 to 12" of snow by now. The only snow we've seen was a very bizarre snow storm on October 13th. :scared:

[DFW]

31. I was on the phone to Genève today

I have an office there, and talk to my man there every day.
You can rest easy. Although it was clear today, the "bise"
was blowing hard, and it was icy cold there as of an hour ago.

In München today, it was snowing, although here in the Rheinland
it is unseasonably warm, and this is very bad for the next year,
as the usual winter cold kills off a lot of the insect eggs that are
laid during the summer and fall. If it doesn't get cold sometime soon,
Europe will have a plague of flies and mosquitoes next year that will
approach the proportions of a biblical plague.

[Odin2005]

34. I Don't rember a December as mild as this year here in Fargo. IN FARGO!

It's almost Christmas and theres NO SNOW on the ground. It got up to 40 degrees today, in FARGO!!! :crazy:

[sofa king]

35. Fox News had a hilarious "question crawl" today.

The so-called Cavuto Mark at the bottom of the screen. It said:

"Global Warming: Great for the Economy?"

One doofus from Fox News was trying to make the case that the warm weather gets people out to the stores at Christmas time. The "expert" on hand kept trying to soft-pedal the idea that any boost to the economy would be more than canceled out by the cataclysmic destruction caused by increasingly unpredictable weather and sea level rise. But think of the money!, said the first.

Nevertheless, I count it as progress. Why? Because neither one of the doofuses on Fox News was trying to deny that global warming exists. One small victory for science over greed and ignorance... I guess.