Study: Northeast Winters Warming Fast

[Ghost in the Machine]

Study: Northeast Winters Warming Fast
Published: 1/12/08, 2:05 PM EDT
By MICHAEL HILL

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Earlier blooms. Less snow to shovel. Unseasonable warm spells.

Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been.

A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average.

"Winter is warming greater than any other season," said Elizabeth Burakowski, who analyzed data from dozens of stations for her master's thesis in collaboration with Cameron Wake, a professor at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space.

Burakowski, who graduated from UNH in December, found that the biggest snowfall decreases were in December and February. Stations in New England showed the strongest decreases in winter snowfall, about 3 inches a decade.

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[Uncle Joe]

1. Also more tornadoes in the winter and it snowed in Baghdad.

And who says global warming climate change isn't happening? I would suggest for anyone to stock up on their canned goods, maybe buying a few seeds wouldn't be a bad idea either.

[gaspee]

2. I remember

When I was a kid in the 70's - the ponds froze over enough for ice skating. Not anymore. Not even in February can you ice skate on ponds around here.

[Missy M]

3. I'm in Western New York with not one bit of snow on the ground..

right now. Temperatures have been pretty mild too.

[blues90]

4. I'm from Chicago and

I have never heard of Jan being in the 60's and 70's . Jan was always a frozen earth and at least 20 degrees below zero , hell if you made a snow man it lasted until late april as the last bit melted . There was plenty of snow fall that lasted the entire winter and it was this way until i left in 1976 then the winters for a few years were even colder with ice on the inside walls because the heat could not keep up on full blast .
We always had snow before christmas .