Octopus Overlords

Kraken wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 6:18 pm Last month was the first February in history that didn't have a single day with a high temp below freezing. It was also abnormally dry, after record-wet January and December. Now we're having a run of normal spring rain and temperatures...about a month earlier than we should be. It was a short, mild winter.

It was a short, mild winter.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 2:12 pm Thing is, when the Groundhogs proclaimed that (as silly as that notion is) it was a rather cold and blustery day and it didn't at all feel like Spring could come early.

Alefroth wrote:

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 2:12 pm Thing is, when the Groundhogs proclaimed that (as silly as that notion is) it was a rather cold and blustery day and it didn't at all feel like Spring could come early.

The superstition is that if the groundhog sees it's shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Phil did not see it's shadow this year.

The weather lore was brought from German-speaking areas where the badger (German: Dachs) is the forecasting animal. It is related to the lore that clear weather on the Christian festival of Candlemas forebodes a prolonged winter.

Alefroth wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 3:57 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 03, 2024 2:12 pm Thing is, when the Groundhogs proclaimed that (as silly as that notion is) it was a rather cold and blustery day and it didn't at all feel like Spring could come early.

The superstition is that if the groundhog sees it's shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. Phil did not see it's shadow this year.

Back-to-back snow-starved winters. Bare ski runs. Sloshy skating ponds and rinks. The winter season is looking rather broken.

Now it turns out this year was especially troubling — and unprecedented in many ways.

Scientists from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service have confirmed that February 2024 was the hottest February ever recorded globally — in fact, it was the ninth month in a row to shatter the high-temperature threshold (record warmth).

To experts across New England, the records keep piling up and are alarming.

“Another month, another smashed global temperature record,” said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth. “We’ve known the next strong El Niño…would boost temperatures, but records have been broken by astounding margins in many regions of the globe, including New England.”

The latest data reveals that February was 1.77 degrees Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial (1850 to 1900) average for the month and 0.81 Celsius above 1991-2020 levels, according to Copernicus records.

Other key data findings include:

• February 2024 averaged 13.54 degrees Celsius (56.37 degrees Fahrenheit) — breaking the previous record, set in February 2016, by 0.12 degrees C.

• All-time high ocean temperatures: The average global sea surface temperature for February 2024 was 21.06 degrees C (69.9 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest for any month in the dataset, surpassing the previous record of August 2023, which was 20.98 degrees C (69.7 degrees F).

• The average daily sea surface temperature reached a new absolute high of 21.09 degrees C at the end of the month.

• Boston and Providence experienced their 7th warmest winter 2023-24 — the average temperature of 36.4 degrees in Boston was 3.9 degrees above average.

• Boston is on track to end up with back-to-back winters with less than 20 inches of snow — the first time since records began in 1872.

• Amherst experienced its warmest meteorological (Dec.-Feb.) winter since records started there in 1893.

• In Worcester, it was the second warmest winter; and third warmest for Hartford.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 12:26 am Damn but I hate getting olde.

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:59 pm Hah, the plow drivers here are not happy. They make upwards of $200 an hour when contracting with the state, but for the past two years they've gotten very few hours. They're mobilized whenever "plowable snow" over 3" is forecast, and they'll plow sparks on bare streets if the snow doesn't come.

Researchers at Colorado State University released their preseasonal Atlantic hurricane season forecast Thursday morning, calling for another active year across the Atlantic basin.

The report, released at the National Tropical Weather Conference in Texas, highlights several factors for the upcoming season which lead researchers to believe the Atlantic will be as alive as ever.

The forecast calls for 23 named storms this season. Of those 23 storms, 11 are expected to become hurricanes and five are expected to reach major hurricane strength with winds of 111 miles per hour or greater.

This is the most aggressive preseason forecast Colorado State University has ever issued. The previous record for highest preseason forecast called for nine hurricanes in a season, which CSU has forecast several times since their first April predictions began in 1995.

The researchers cite record warm tropical and eastern Atlantic sea surface temperatures being a primary factor in the hurricane prediction this year.

"When waters in the eastern and central tropical and subtropical Atlantic are much warmer than normal in the spring, this tends to force a weaker subtropical high and associated weaker winds blowing across the tropical Atlantic," the report states. "A very warm Atlantic favors an above-average season, since a hurricane’s fuel source is warm ocean water."

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 1:06 pm Colorado State University issues highest preseason hurricane forecast ever

The Meal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 2:44 pm

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 1:06 pm Colorado State University issues highest preseason hurricane forecast ever

I believe we’ve got a hurricane thread (with lots of tasty history) that incorporates CSU’s yearly predictions. It may be time for its seasonal revival.

71°F and clear here today. /on

em2nought wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 1:54 pm Dropped my condo price again, I want to get out of here before the next hurricane season happens, or before I get hit by another hail storm. The HOA would go into the $700s if either of those happened, and the reserves would be gone and need replenishing. Which would have to happen by law with a special assessment.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 4:30 pm

em2nought wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 1:54 pm Dropped my condo price again, I want to get out of here before the next hurricane season happens, or before I get hit by another hail storm. The HOA would go into the $700s if either of those happened, and the reserves would be gone and need replenishing. Which would have to happen by law with a special assessment.

Where in Florida are you? It is Florida, isn't it?