It’s 5pm. It’s 80 degrees with thin, hazy clouds. There are 3 weeks left to go this winter, and I live in Lindsborg, Kansas, where it’s not unusal to have blizzards at this time of year.
Contrast that to Palo Alto, where it’s cloudy and 58 degrees. Where I’m living, at this time of year 58 degrees is warmer than normal; to have reached 83 degrees today is unthinkable! So much so that I checked the local weather history, and indeed, today’s high temperature marks did set a record.
While I enjoyed the mild winter this year (only 2 periods of actual cold weather), it doesn’t bode well for summer. Ahh well, at this point, with spring still on the way, I’ll just hope for continuing mild weather through summer. I hope that’s not just wishful thinking; I just heard on the weather report that this was the 5th driest winter on record here in Kansas. Droughts in California were rough, but there was no obvious local economic impact due to the lack of rain. It’s a different story here. They say there’s still time for rain to help this years’ crop, but even with my limited experience I can tell the wheat fields are looking pretty sad due to a lack of moisture from snow and rain.