Winter has gone missing across the Midwest and Great Lakes, and time is running out to find it. Dozens of cities are on track for one of the warmest winters on record, making snow and ice rare commodities.
Several cities are missing feet of snow compared to a typical winter, ice on the Great Lakes is near record-low levels and the springlike temperatures have even spawned rare wintertime severe thunderstorms.
A classic El Niño pattern coupled with the effects of a warming climate are to blame for this “non-winter” winter, said Pete Boulay, a climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Winter has become the fastest-warming season for nearly 75% of the US and snowfall is declining around the globe as temperatures rise because of human-caused climate change.
I’m in QC and it’s quite incredible this winter, instead of 0F we have 48F, we had 2 snowstorm in a few days early January, nothing since. I’ve never saw a winter like this, people were wearing shorts this week-end
It’s not as stark of a difference, but in western Washington we’ve also had a noticeably warm winter. Really just feels like a continuation of fall. Almost the entire winter we’ve been around 40-50 °F, only had one cold snap that even got down to freezing, into the 20s for 4 days or so.
Last friday it was 60F here in the Detroit area. I took my daughter skiing at one of the local places and you could see the snow melt running down the hill. I saw at least two kids skiing in shorts.