How is the unusual weather affecting everyone this winter??? How about posting some pictures of strange "winter" occurances!!

I heard someone the other day state that her hyacinth bulbs were coming up and trying to bloom in Ohio!!!

And this is testament to the crazy weather here in PA this winter.... I live 40 miles north of Pittsburgh and I took this picture just a bit ago.... a DANDELION in full bloom 2 weeks before Christmas!!!!

A child gave me a dandelion last week; Saturday our first prairie patch was mowed down since I want to put some seeds in there; and today our ditch and yard is flooded, but snow was also coming down. I got photos, but they're still on the camera.

DD in Holland , MI has blooming dandelions in her yard too.

No sign of winter here; everything is still green.

I'm in Florida and it's still summer like weather here, temp's in the mid 80's. We've been 10º above normal for the past two months and I sure look forward to a little cool down at some point.

Yeah, I think it's coming this weekend, Lin. Thank goodness. That front is working through Utah today, and my kids got 8in. of icky cold white stuff, so the minute I catch myself complaining about warmth, I have to stop and consider the alternative.

I've been telling people here "nice October weather we're having these days". LOL After all the rain we had yesterday, I said "nice April weather, isn't it?" It even smelled good, not your run-of-the-mill cold weather type rain.

I've been finding and picking some fresh catnip for my kitties. It's still growing out on our bank by the road. They love it.

Yes, and I am sorry I panicked and put everything in my greenhouse. The plants are confused in there!!

Should be shoveling here... instead, we're bailing!

My husband went down into the basement for something and discovered water... Not real bad, but bad enough he used the shop vac.

Good that he discovered it, Kim!

I have primrose's blooming, geum, phlox 'candy stripe', black eyed susan and some of my Aquilegia have flower buds coming up. And yes, dandelion's too! It's a few months too soon for these plants to be growing. I'm worried.

We still have summer weather here most of the time - warm and muggy. The Gulf water hasn't cooled off much, and that just keeps us very warm. We need it to get cold north of us to cool off the Gulf so we can cool off, too!

I've been waiting 6 weeks to plant my cold loving salad greens, peas, beets and spinach. They come up and flop over in 83deg. and sunshine. We had to turn on the a/c again three days ago because we were both too hot at night, and the low on Sunday night was 73! The average high for this time of year is 72

Sandy, that looks terrible and what happens if all that water doesn't drain away before the cold front arrives? You'll be skating around your house . . .

dyzzypyxxy said:Sandy, that looks terrible and what happens if all that water doesn't drain away before the cold front arrives? You'll be skating around your house . . .

LOL, that pretty much sums it up! Surprisingly, most of the water that was standing in the yard has already soaked in; or made its way into our crawl space, which we continue to pump out and send over to the woods. We're fortunate to have the low areas in the woods and between the woods and the road, which usually kind of take up the excess and keep it from flooding our yard. Many of our neighbors have a much bigger problem, with their entire yards under water right now. We've had quite a few winters where somewhere in January or sometimes February, when we already have lots of snow on the ground, the temp will warm up and we'll get lots of rain -- just enough to ALMOST melt all the snow off our driveway but not quite; then it gets colder again and the driveway is covered in glare ice . We have a pretty long driveway, so it gets quite challenging to drag the big (wheeled) garbage can out to the road under those conditions, to say the least.

Yes very goofy. Too bad very little of the nightly news tell us the true culprit.

I have Heather and rose blooming. Planted some Fall Safron Crocus less than 2 months ago and one is blooming already.

Most of what is happening is a result of the strongest El Nino on record. Due to world location, it affects the USA strongly (warmer). If this is followed by a strong La Ninya, which is often the case, next Summer will be some whacky weather as well. El Nino is purely a weather phenomena. Another significant factor is the Aleutian Low which is simply piling on at this point.

https://wunderground.atavist.c...

has some good info.

Very much more detailed and technical info here:

http://www.oceannetworks.ca/wa...

(Weather garu wannabe and former AMS member for ~ 20 years - in my former life I was am Energy Economist and did massive studies of weather data. One of my studies based on Edmonton Alberta data went back 120 years.)

Whacky weather seems to be the new normal...

We had a few snowflakes in the air yesterday, but getting more rain today. We were in town yesterday, picking up some dog food and other "normal" stuff (which is to say, not Christmas shopping), and I saw a lot of girls walking around in snow boots. Must be a fashion statement, but why anyone would want to put on boots (these were bulky boots, not what I consider dressy boots by any means) when they don't need to is beyond me! (probably just one more sign that I'm old ) On the other hand, we also saw a guy wearing shorts... (it's not just the weather that's whacky!)

Hmmmm.............I've always thought it strange that people wonder why guys will wear "shorts" when it is colder than billy-blue-blazes out, but no-one questions gals with mini-skirts or even "regular" skirts. Same difference, if you ask me, and most times the guy's shorts are ALWAYS longer than the skirts.

It's when the girls wear the heavy boots AND the miniskirts that I get really confused!

David, amazingly our weather guy did refer to the "Mega El Nino" as the cause for this crazy weather pattern yesterday. What I don't get is why it's so cold out West but that cold never makes it across the country intact. Or if it does, it goes by so fast you blink and you miss it.

At least they're getting a bit of rain in California, I think!

Actually, at least for the past month, temps out West have been about average and precip has been about or above average. For CA, since they have been in such a drought, average precip is a blessing. The "average" used for comparison is a 30 year average referred to as "official normal weather" - currently 1981-2010.

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/