Our temperatures here have been averaging 10-10+ degrees cooler than seasonal.

[Skidmore]

Last year we had a long winter and temperatures were on the cool side for summer. We are in Iowa. Would be interested in any info or thoughts from those knowledgeable in weather and climate as to what is going on. We still have no leaves on the trees.

[Rhiannon12866]

1. We had a dusting of snow, night before last, here in NY.

:(

[Scuba]

2. Can't speak for Iowa, but here in Wisconsin we've had...

..sighting of palm trees, so the weather can't be that bad.

[HereSince1628]

3. Weather is variable.

SE Wisconsin is experiencing the same sort of thing of course.

The atmosphere tumbles around the planet in tube-like bands, and these bands (the ones near the equator are called Hadley Cells) will for a variety of reasons get kinks/eddies in them that may not greatly change for several to many months. These kinks then influence steering currents for cyclonic and anti-cyclonic winds around low and high pressure areas. For months this year there was a large kink over the north Atlantic that acted as a block to eastward moving weather fronts.

Normally, these circulating bands of atmosphere seem to wobble/shift north and south with the seasons. The seasonal northward progression of early thunderstorms is part of this atmospheric movement. Typically that track moves north of Illinois from late May to mid June, and so Wisconsin is usually later to get into peak tornado season than say, Arkansas and Kentucky.

Currently, the spring low pressure areas and their warm fronts are moving to the south of Wisconsin. We're running about 10 degrees lower than usual because these cyclonic winds pull air in from over Canada.

This period of cooler than usual temps still seems within what could be called normal variation even in a warming climate.

[sofa king]

7. Still not as bad as 150 years ago.

In the course of my studies of the Civil War battlefields here in the Valley of Virginia, I've found an unusual thing: the weather here in the winter was much, much worse than it has been here of late.

149 years ago, on almost this very day, there was 17 inches of fresh snow on the ground in Highland County. Spring had not even begun to show the first growth on the trees by May 5 there (according to Jed Hotchkiss' diary), and nights were still "heavy frost" nights, meaning well below freezing. Similarly, while Virginia toyed with secession exactly 150 years ago, communications and travel were interrupted by occasional snow in early and mid April.

In almost every winter of the Civil War, both sides in Virginia spent the long months in winter quarters practicing maneuvers by snowball fighting, and there was always--always!--a ground cover of snow with which to work. (Troops here also occasionally resorted to throwing snowballs in combat when they ran out of ammunition--see, e.g., the Battle of Camp Allegheny.)

Robert E. Lee, riding Traveller from Richmond to Lexington in late September, 1865, noted with dismay that it was already so cold that most homes were already heating with wood stoves.

This is coming to you from a guy who considers this past winter to have lasted for six months, because he has spent hours outside through all of it, every day, day and night, often on a moped. I friggin' cannot stand the cold, and secretly I know that if climate change continues, my beloved Valley will once again become frigid cold and unwelcoming. It's only global "warming" for the planet as a whole. For North America and Europe, it's likely to mean a return to the bad old days of never-ending winter.

Edit: I should also mention that Spring was arguably just as bad or even worse. Just a week or two ago the Upper Valley experienced flooding where for a day or so the rivers were around seven feet deep in places where they often run eighteen inches. In 1862, those conditions lasted not for a day, but for six weeks. When torrential flooding again washed out the valley in the early 1900s, the old-timers agreed that that disaster compared not at all to the flooding of the spring of 1862.

[madrchsod]

4. try this site..covers the central midwest states

http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/

northern illinois is running above normal rainfall and below average temps so far this year.

[BIGFOOTSDADDY333]

5. ohio's set for a record rainfall this year

so far it rained every day 'cept 2 i think

[NutmegYankee]

6. No leaves on trees - Check

This winter sucked, and it has trouble letting go.

[hobbit709]

8. Climate change is a liberal plot, doncha know.

[TexasProgresive]

9. Early spring with higer temps and no rain in Texas n/t

[SteveG]

10. Here in DE

Early and snowy winter, but temps never even got below 20, since march, several days breaking 80, including yesterday and today. Very wet winter and spring. 15 years ago it was common for us to have weeks during the winter when it didn't get above 20.

[Posteritatis]

11. As far as I'm concerned the date is March 55. (nt)

[Javaman]

12. Hotter here in Austin.

at 6:30 am it was 80 degrees. This is still April. I don't expect temps like that until at least mid to late June.