'It just feels weird'... Al gore
'It just feels weird'Warm weather brings out hikers, golfers, gardeners
BY REX SPRINGSTON AND PETER BACQUETIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS Jan 5, 2007
Flowers are blooming, turtles are basking and people are out in shorts.
Is this normal?
"I think Al Gore is correct," said Richmond restaurateur Manny Mendez, hiking a trail near Maymont while wearing shorts and sandals.
Taking a cue from the former vice president, Mendez says global warming must be playing a role in this balmy winter weather.
"It just feels weird, especially around the holidays," said Mendez's friend and co-hiker, Maris Wurdeman of Richmond. "It's kind of eerie."
But at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, where numerous plants are blooming weeks ahead of normal, retired civil engineer Gus Diezemann of Hingham, Mass., thought otherwise.
"It's just one of those cyclical things," he said. "It happens."
Global warming or not, Richmond is definitely springing into winter.
The unusual warmth traces most immediately to a persistent weather pattern that has funneled warm, southern air over the eastern U.S., while the West has gotten cold, northern flow.
"They've got the [cold] trough and we've got the [warm] ridge," said Tony Siebers, the meteorologist in charge of the Wakefield Weather Forecast Office. "Let's hope this pattern holds for a while, at least for us."
"Temperatures are well above normal right now, but we've had warm winters before," said the National Weather Service's Ed O'Lenic, chief of the U.S. Climate Prediction Center's long-range forecast branch.
Almost all of Virginia experienced above-normal temperatures in six of the past 10 years, according to O'Lenic, and the state's highland areas saw even more above-normal years during that time.
While this winter's warmth is part of that trend, "It's impossible to ascribe this to the El Nino going on or to global warming," O'Lenic said. "It's just one weather event."
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192498815&path=%21news&s=1045855934842
BY REX SPRINGSTON AND PETER BACQUETIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS Jan 5, 2007
Flowers are blooming, turtles are basking and people are out in shorts.
Is this normal?
"I think Al Gore is correct," said Richmond restaurateur Manny Mendez, hiking a trail near Maymont while wearing shorts and sandals.
Taking a cue from the former vice president, Mendez says global warming must be playing a role in this balmy winter weather.
"It just feels weird, especially around the holidays," said Mendez's friend and co-hiker, Maris Wurdeman of Richmond. "It's kind of eerie."
But at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, where numerous plants are blooming weeks ahead of normal, retired civil engineer Gus Diezemann of Hingham, Mass., thought otherwise.
"It's just one of those cyclical things," he said. "It happens."
Global warming or not, Richmond is definitely springing into winter.
The unusual warmth traces most immediately to a persistent weather pattern that has funneled warm, southern air over the eastern U.S., while the West has gotten cold, northern flow.
"They've got the [cold] trough and we've got the [warm] ridge," said Tony Siebers, the meteorologist in charge of the Wakefield Weather Forecast Office. "Let's hope this pattern holds for a while, at least for us."
"Temperatures are well above normal right now, but we've had warm winters before," said the National Weather Service's Ed O'Lenic, chief of the U.S. Climate Prediction Center's long-range forecast branch.
Almost all of Virginia experienced above-normal temperatures in six of the past 10 years, according to O'Lenic, and the state's highland areas saw even more above-normal years during that time.
While this winter's warmth is part of that trend, "It's impossible to ascribe this to the El Nino going on or to global warming," O'Lenic said. "It's just one weather event."
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149192498815&path=%21news&s=1045855934842
posted by presgore19 at 4:01 AM
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