Another Mild Winter?

Well, it's February now. The shortest month of the year. Also, often, the coldest month of the year.

Yet, so far, the weather has been quite moderate. This has hardly been the most severe winter in terms of winter storms thus far. At least, that is, in New Jersey.

In fact, it's been downright mild. Two days ago, it was in the mid-fifties, on a day that felt more like early spring, than mid-winter. It was comfortable to go out in jeans and a light shirt. I remember several days like that last winter, as well.

That's right. Mid-winter. We are halfway through the official winter season, but really, I think, we are almost done with it. Isn't tomorrow Groundhog Day?

Isn't tomorrow Groundhog Day?

Just kidding. Couldn't resist.

In any case, unless things change in a hurry, this winter looks like it will rank among the mildest winters that we have had, which would mean that we have had two of the mildest winters ever recorded, back to back.

Again, however, it should be noted that this is February, and things can change in a hurry. I mean, again, two days ago, it felt downright warm. Even yesterday, dreary as the weather looked aesthetically, and with the strong winds early on that accompanied the ominous sky, the actual temperatures were quite mild.

But then last night, by comparison, it felt very cold. The wind picked up, and the temperatures plummeted. I began to regret not having taken the jacket, having grown a little too accustomed to the milder weather.

By nightfall, it was downright cold. Even with a heavy winter jacket on, my walk from the parking deck to my building at work, a walk of maybe five miles) felt like a walk through the bitter cold. Indeed, it was cold, but it's February, after all. You have to expect that. Cold, and what made last night feel all the worse was that it was windy and blustery.

That was the clincher.

Still, the calendar does not lie. The first month of this new year is under wraps. History. A full month of 2013 is done, and now, we are into the shortest month of the year. Four weeks from now, we will enter another month, and winter will really be just about ending, with spring right around the corner.

Not much longer to go.

A lot of people enjoy these mild winters. But my girlfriend was expressing just how unnatural the warmer winter(s) are, and it's hard not to agree. I don't remember anything like this when I was a young kid. Winter was cold, snowy, icy. That was all there was to it.

Given the severity of recent storms, particularly Hurricane Sandy, and given the new Dust Bowl and the excess of insects (particularly in parts of Texas, as I understand it), you really have to wonder about these mild winters. Sure, a lot of people seem to enjoy them. Just go to a park on one of these mild winter days to see just how much people like it, and I can't say that I blame them.

But are these mild winters actually a good sign? Or should they serve as an ominous sign, foretelling nasty storms (like Sandy) in the future, perhaps the near future. Because some of the storms that we in the greater New York/New Jersey area in particular have seen have been in recent years, as well, and those, like the mild winters, seem to be the new normal. Perhaps, since mild winter days seem like such a pleasant surprise, and we are understandably prone towards enjoying and taking advantage of them, we are indeed missing the more ominous signs that they represent: an unnatural new reality that we should not necessarily embrace so easily.