For Dozens Of Cities East Of The Mississippi, Winter 2019-2020 Never Really Happened
Call this the winter that wasn't. Or the new reality. Here and across much of the Eastern United States, dozens of cities experienced a "meteorological winter"—the three months from December through February—that ranked among their top 10 warmest on record.
In Louisville, the average mean temperature was 5.1 degrees warmer than normal for those three months. There was hardly any snow. Winter bike riding was more pleasant. Home and business heating demand was less. Daffodils and tulips were peeking out of the ground a month early in Washington, D.C., and clouds of pollen emerged from pine trees in North Carolina two months early.
In addition to inflamed allergies, public health officials and outdoor enthusiasts in eastern states can now worry about more disease-carrying bugs come spring. "While I might like the increased opportunity to get outside without battling low temperatures, I know there will be issues to contend with in the spring," said Mike Bucayu, a Louisville resident who enjoyed kayaking the Floyds Fork waterway in January. "Pesky insect and tick numbers also boom in the spring, which is why I like a good winter freeze."
Winter failed to live up to its historical norms in big ways in dozens of cities east of the Mississippi River, from Atlanta to to Boston, which had its second warmest winter in 146 years of record keeping. Nashville's average mean temperature was 6.3 degrees above normal for the three months, including 8 degrees above normal in December and 7 degrees in January. The difference wasn't quite as great in Cincinnati, which nonetheless had its 12th warmest winter on record, 5.1 degrees above the norm. In Indianapolis, the three-month stretch was 4.8 degrees above normal, making it the 15th warmest winter.
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Deepti Singh, a climate scientist in the School of the Environment at Washington State University in Vancouver, Washington, said the Arctic oscillation has been in an unusually strong positive phase this winter, which has resulted in a strong polar vortex that's kept the cold Arctic air trapped up north. That's a contrast to some recent winters, when a weaker polar vortex has allowed frigid air to descend from the north, resulting in extremely cold days and strong snowstorms across portions of the United States, she said. But some scientists also suspect that climate change is playing a role in the weakening of the polar vortex in some winters, adding to the weather extremes that scientists have linked to human activities like burning fossil fuels.
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04032020/winter-southeast-united-states-polar-vortex-warming
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