You Say Global Warming, I Say We're Returning To The Ice Age

Of course, global warming is not just entirely the overall heating of the planet and its oceans; it offers wild extremes of temperature.

While Oswego, NY, has had more than 100 inches of snow in the last few weeks, we in Vermont - after a relatively mild autumn and early winter - have now spent weeks well below normal. This includes more than two weeks with single digit highs (and double digit negatives), a spate of days that never made it into positive digits at all, and it's been since before Christmas that we've seen temps as high as 20. The last week or so we applaud when it's above 10 Fahrenheit.

We were at -20 at 2 AM (and it got far colder than that; I was just too busy burrowing under blankets and comforters to look at the outside thermometer readings on the electronic weather center) and it was nearly 2 PM before we nosed, but not quite hit, zero degrees as a daytime high. Now it's darkening and the temp is dropping fast.

Right now, we're torn: a big Nor'easter could blow in which would mean warmer temperatures but perhaps a foot or two of snow. Freeze to death or shovel for days. Tough call.

This time of year, we should be nosing 30 degrees for a daytime high and 9 degrees Fahrenheit for an average low. If we're really lucky, that might happen sometime soon... say, in April.

Brrrr........