This Winter Among Least-Snowy Ever In NYC; No Measureable Snow For All Of February

[hatrack]

On Feb. 1 in Central Park, children threw snowballs and slid down a mound of snow. But the snow was machine-made for a winter festival, and for New York City, it was virtually the only snow of the month.

As of Friday, there had not been even a trace of snow at the city’s airports in February, according to the National Weather Service, for the first time on record. But a few flakes fell on Saturday, the extra day of a leap year.

And this winter, the city tied its second-smallest snow total on record. There was only a trace of snow in Central Park last month, only the sixth time the park had no measurable snow in February since records began in 1868.

The paltry snowfall has left children crestfallen, teenagers pining for snow days and commuters relieved. Coming on the heels of the world’s hottest year on record, the snow deficit was also a sign of climate change — though not in the way people might assume.

EDIT

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/nyregion/ny-weather-snow.html

Not just New York, either:

Link to tweet

[Apollo Zeus]

1. Has been running about 20 degrees above average all "winter"

When do we flip the phrase to "Changed Climate" ?

[lark]

2. North FL where I live historically had 13 freezing days a year, this year there was 1.

That didn't occur until last week, when it hit 31 for a couple of hours, the first actual freeze of this year. This is definitely the warmest winter of my lifetime, almost zero winter at all. Makes me worried about the spring/summer - the fleas & weeds will be outrageous since they didn't get killed back like usual and I'm concerned about how that will affect people and animals with allergies. We aren't being affected here yet by sea level rise, but it will come. We live a across the street & 15 ft uphill from the St. Johns', so we are fine for now but long term???