Bears awake and flowers in bloom. Whatever happened to winter?

[Joanne98]

Bears awake and flowers in bloom. Whatever happened to winter?
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1987437,00.html#article_continue

Luke Harding in Moscow, Ed Pilkington in New York and Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Thursday January 11, 2007
The Guardian


The brick grotto where Moscow zoo's bears live was yesterday finally devoid of snuffling. After weeks of insomnia caused by the record mild winter in Russia, the six bears that live in the craggy enclosure have at last nodded off. Russia's famous winters may have scuttled the invasion plans of both Napoleon Bonaparte and Hitler but this year the winter has spectacularly failed to materialise in Moscow.
Meteorologists said that yesterday was the warmest January day in Moscow since 1957, at 5.3C.

"Usually it's -18C by now," Tania Simyonova said, pushing her 18-month-old son Daniel past the empty bear enclosure. Nearby a polar bear dozed; in the next enclosure a dromedary jogged up and down.
"I think winter has been cancelled," Mrs Simyonova said, gazing at the drizzling sky and the zoo's stubbornly unfrozen duck pond. "If you want to see winter this year you have to go to Siberia or the Urals."

The non-sleeping bears are a tiny jigsaw piece in an alarming global puzzle of unseasonable weather. In recent months there have been erratic monsoons in Nepal, glaciers melting earlier than expected in the Himalayas, and rains heavier and more intense than usual in Malawi. In November, Australia experienced its worst drought for about 1,000 years.

In Europe, the mild temperatures have wreaked havoc on the skiing season, with Alpine resorts forced to fire up their snow machines.

In Austria, hazel and alder trees have burst into flower. In Britain, the Met Office has predicted that global temperatures in 2007 have a 60% chance of becoming the hottest ever.

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1987437,00.html#article_continue

[msongs]

1. here is my list of frost damage in so california last night ->

oranges on the ground frozen hard as rocks.

went to wash the car and the hose was frozen stiff.

all the hibiscus hedges are covered with limp blackened leaves.

so winter is here, not where you are.

with any luck, you will have it soon and we will be rid of it :-)


Msongs
www.msongs.com
batik & digital art

[diane in sf]

2. Winter is here in SF, CA

have been running the heat constantly in my very uninsulated flat. Cold, dry and uncomfortable! But not actually frozen here so close to the ocean.

[Mythsaje]

3. We' ve had snow for several days here in Tacoma, WA

Which is really rather rare.

Russia can have its winter back...no charge.

[Joanne98]

4. Winter isn't here in Ohio. It's raining an 50 degrees...

It's only snowed once. Maybe we're changing climate zones. :)

[Dogmudgeon]

5. I went shopping yesterday. In my shorts and polo shirt.

Okay, I'm a howling freak anyway, but it was warm enough, and I saw several of my fellow howling freaks baring some leg, too.

Philadelphia, PA. No winter yet. A few days of cold weather. Low heating bills, but they say the cold will arrive this week.

--p!

[Dead_Parrot]

6. It flew south

Apparently, NZ had the coldest December on record (it's summer here, of course).
:(