Michigan weather is alarming

[Johnny2X2X]

This has been the craziest Winter of all time. I cannot believe it. I'm here in Grand Rapids and we basically had 10 days of Winter and that's it. It was almost 60 on Christmas Day. Then we had 1 big snowstorm a few weeks ago that dropped 30 inches over a 10 day period and it's been 40 since.

10 day forecast has no snow and includes some mid 50s for temperature. I shoveled for like a week. Just absolutely stunning. And yeah, I realize there are always late February and March snowstorms, but they generally don't have much staying power. The forecast for February calls for maybe 1 day of snow.

Now I am usually very careful about equating seasonal weather with Global Warming, but this is something I have never seen in my 51 years living in Michigan. It's looking like we're going to be going into at least late February really having only about 10 days of what we consider as Winter weather here. And in December, we had the most days of sun in recorded history in my city for a December. Because we had the 1 massive snowstorm, I'm sure it won't be a record low for snow, but it's sure to shatter all records for least snowy days.

It's stunning, it's shocking. I can't believe more people are as gobsmacked as I am. This is like the least severe Winter in 50 years by a factor of like 5. Not complaining, but this is surely going to have unforseen negative effects. The soil relies on snow and water freezing to aerate it for crops. Severe Winters control pests and wild life. Lake Michigan has had basically no ice all season, the ice cover in the Winter really does a lot to protect the shores from erosion. Ground water needs snow melt to replenish. There was basically no icefishing season in my part of the state, the lakes don't have enough ice cover to be safe right now. SNowmobiling and skiing season were the shortest ever, that has a huge economic impact on many small towns. And there's a who host of effects we don't even know about yet.

Global Warming is here and it just might be way further a long than even the most alarmist scientists are letting on.

[Siwsan]

1. I'm in Genesee County. We've had a few troublesome snowfalls

Not a lot of snow but it was the kind that made the roads a nightmare. Every storm forecast said we'd be getting 7 or more inches and we got maybe 3.

I know that last year we were considerably below the normal snowfall level. This year accumulation is way below last year's.

Who knows - maybe we will get hammered during the next two months. I remember a few really heavy snowfalls in early April.

[Johnny2X2X]

2. Great Lakes ice coverage

Average for a max during a season is 53%, this year it didn't hit 10% and is at like 1.3% and falling right now. Just absolutely crazy, I think 1 season long ago had less ice coverage than this one did, but the snow and sun was more normal for Winter.

This isn't like Michigan suddenly having Ohio like weather, this is like Michigan having Virginia like weather. 40s for several weeks of the Winter, 1 bad snowsotrm, and then 50s start to hit.

And you've got some really confused plants. There are plants sprouting up in people's gardens. It's just unprecedented.

Even in the UP, went with a couple freinds to a cabin in late Septemeber hoping to do some hiking and maybe some snowshoeing. We were 40 miles South of Marquette. It was in the 70s, the cabin was hot at night. We had fun still, but it was not what we were expecting.
Last Winter was really really mild too. This is just a new way of life emerging here.

[patphil]

3. I live in southern New York State, and we've only had one big snowstorm also.

A couple decades ago, we'd have snow cover all winter, but those days are gone. In fact, this year we only had snow cover for about 1/2 the time in winter so far.
My weather station recorded 6.6 inches of liquid precipitation in December, and about 6.4 inches in January.
That's 13 inches of rain, not snow, in the past two months.
I remember back in the 1990's the snow banks on the sides of my driveway were so high that my snowblower couldn't throw it high enough to get over the top.
I had to hand shovel the tops of the banks down a couple feet so I could finish clearing my driveway.
Now, on February 1st, I'm seeing early spring flowers poking up through the soil, and there are robins in the yard.
Incredible.

[Johnny2X2X]

6. It's dangerous

Dangerous because few people will complain about less severe Winters in West Michgain or South NY. But there are small towns all over Northern Michigan who already saw all the manufacturing leave. They rely on Winter tourism for skiing, ice fishing, and snowmobiling to make ends meet. Summer tourism is bigger, but Winter tourinms is still needed for many businesses to survive.

And Global Warming is so unpredictable in its effects. There's all sorts of nasty things that we cannot predict. For all we know Michigan and New York could become uninhabitable.

[patphil]

9. Yeah, we're seeing this play out all over the nation; all over the world.

And it's only going to get worse.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. The lack of alarm is striking to me

Everyone seems ho hum here about it, like, "Oh well, no Winter this year, cool." It's not good, this isn't a good situation for Michigan and it's going to come with a heavy price that we just don't know about yet.

[patphil]

13. My feelings exactly.

[multigraincracker]

4. It ain't over until at least

April Fools day.

In the 70s I could drive my truck a mile or two out on Lake Erie. The last 10 or 15 years you can’t walk out a hundred yards.

[Johnny2X2X]

8. Oh, we'l still get some snow storms

But this is Febuary 1st, we're usually in the middle of getting buried for 3 months straight right now. March and April snow storms usually melt in a few days.

[Hope22]

5. In Ohio the Pussy Willows

Came out in January! Very scary!

[cilla4progress]

7. We are screwed

in the shrub steppe of eastern Washington state.

Hoping the snow pack keeps us from burning up (again) this summer.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. Snowpack

Thankfully, the snow pack in the Mountains out West has been above average in recent years, so the drought in CA ended and the reserrvoirs are all near capacity. But Washington is another matter.

[cilla4progress]

11. It was at 97% in our watershed a couple days ago.

Can change quick.

[MiHale]

14. Iosco County here...

Same. One bad week of winter maybe a few other days. We got 15 -18 inches during the blizzard, the winds were 50+ mph for a couple days. That was totally normal, but before that it really never got cold. The ground was dryer than normal and never got a hard freeze. We weren’t able to get to our greenhouse to clear it and it collapsed. Wasn’t the weight of the snow as much as that weight bouncing up and down as the winds pummeled it.

Now with the warmup the snow isn’t even puddling anywhere just going straight down into the soil. We’ve noticed more rabbit tracks in what’s left of the snow and the feral cats are rebounding well must be having a ball getting all the little critters. Last fall in anticipation of an easier winter we cut back the grasses around the garden for tick control but I believe some chemical protection will be necessary this year.

If we don’t get good rains it’s gonna get dry up here we haven’t had the rains like downstate.

It’ll be what it’ll be…just gotta deal with it.