By Josh Resnek
Many Everett people we speak with recall the years of their youth as being colder with more snow than there is today.
If you are over 60 years old, then you know winters used to be more vicious than they are in recent years.
This year’s winter has been a bust if you prefer the cold to the heat and snow to rain.
Are winters growing warmer?
Yes they are, according to the National Weather Service.
Over the last century, annual air temperatures in the Northeast have been warming at an average rate of 0.5°F (nearly 0.26°C) per decade since 1970. Winter temperatures have been rising at a faster rate of 1.3°F (0.7°C) per decade on average.
Long range forecasters had been predicting that winter temperatures would be below no mal, while precipitation and snowfall will be above normal.
In both cases, the forecasters have failed miserably.
December was extremely warm and January started the same way.
In fact, it felt like spring just last week and during the early part of January.
Warmer temperatures have continued during the first two weeks of January.
Monday’s snow and lower temperatures will be followed by temperatures rising and a relatively mild weather situation for the remainder of the week.
So far, the heating season has not broken the back of Everett residents dependent on oil and gas for their heat.
For this week in January we are now experiencing, the snow is going to disappear from the ground with temperatures rising to 46 on as they did on Tuesday, and to almost 50 on Wednesday and then to very high 30’s and back into the 40’s by Sunday.
Unless a dramatic change in the weather pattern occurs during the next two weeks, it appears that January will be for the most part without snow.
What are the forecasters predicting?
The snowiest periods will be in early to mid-January, late January, and late February. April will be cooler and drier than normal, while May will be warmer and rainier. Summer will be warmer than normal, with above-normal precipitation. The hottest periods will be in mid-July and early to mid-August.
All time snow records were set in 2015.
A six-week-plus snow siege in January-February 2015 had parts of New England blowing past all-time records.
What we are looking at right now is a December almost completely absent of snow and lower temperatures, followed by the first half of January coming up dry, and for the most part, warmer.
February is a question mark. It always is after a slow start to the winter.
We’ll have to see what happens, won’t we?