Well,
actors from the Arctic to Antarctica came again, or so it seems. Snowy Owls
from the Arctic. Big flocks of American Robins overwinter instead of
migrating South. I have a heated birdbath to provide unfrozen drink water 24/7 but
some of my garden birds bathe like penguins from Antarctica :-)

1' snow cover or more, here, quite reassuring :-)

I haven't crunched the numbers Dec '16 v. Dec '15, but my natural gas usage was almost half again higher '16 v. '15. Last Dec my autumn flowering cherry had so many blooms the spring show was poor, this Dec very few blooms. Last weekend had at least 3 continuous days below freezing, with a low of 3F. Dec precip was 1" above average, about average so far this month. The ground is saturated with standing water in low spots, normal for this time of year. Daily high temps here have been between 55 and 70 the past week, will stay that way through the 22nd. Most nights the past week have been warmer than the average daily high, which is 47. I like the warm weather, but I sure don't want everything to break dormancy only to be frozen, an occurrence that happens all too often here.

I used to live on a street lined with Autumn Cherry trees; I see on some of these garden fora that these trees get nasty reviews but sure do miss those Spring-like blossoms in late November. I expect to see the forsythia in full bloom in a few days. It was in the upper 60's a few days ago!

We almost got up to 74 degrees here today a week after 1ft of snow! I used today to edge around the flowerbeds in the front and start trimming the crepe myrtle.

Southern Europe has got a northern winter this year, even Italy has been covered in snow. But in the north we have a normal to mild winter. It's just mid jan yet though, much can still happen.

We've had a few winters in my lifetime where it hasn't gotten much below zero for lows and stayed relatively mild (~20's & 30'sF) for highs but not this year. It's been right up there for cold and snow. And for this location, it's not over, although they're predicting a spell in the upper 30'sF and maybe a 40F or two for highs this week. Winters not over for us although we usually get alternating 'back & forth' weather Feb & March. I guess it all just depends on how brutal the 'backs' are for the next couple months.

January is going to turn out to be relatively mild considering. December wasn't too bad either with the exception of one cold snap.

With a GB win winter just got a little shorter.

So far, this January is just gorgeous with day after day of daylong sunshine. As my house faces directly south..., I feel it and boy does it save on heating! As said above, the only issue with it this mild is that plants will be hurt if the warmth encourages spring budding and then winter returns. Gotta say though, that this is my idea of January weather..., upper 40's/50's and sunny. Not sure I would like it into the 70's and 80's so early in the year though, even though I LOVE Miami!

Hey whaas, I think whether winter is long or short depends on where you are with respect to the "Mason kicks in line". ;-)

tj

January thaw. Was wading in a farm pond in late Jan '74, then cold/snow returned w/a vengeance in Feb.

Long range forecasts are still for mild in the east, but, yes we aren't out of the woods yet for a February "sneak attack". Though they are rare, they have the possibility to be devastating, especially in the south. I can't remember the details but some book I've read talks about a bad February after a mild Dec. & Jan. Maybe Elizabeth Lawrence. Or Henry Mitchell!

Though more often, if you get through Dec. & Jan. and they aren't too bad, February won't be.

Feb is usually a variable month in TN, but I remember several below zero events, particularly Feb of '93, when I recorded -21F at my place.

Early Feb '96 (Feb 5th?) had 30F on tall Afton Mountain on the Blue Ridge near Charlottesville, VA, -8F at my place near Blacksburg, and between -24F and -27F in southwest VA in frost pockets near the Lebanon/Cleveland area. Yes, that's correct -- reported in the quarterly Virginia Climate Advisory -- an extreme temperature-inversion effect.

Here in the Rockies, Nov was the warmest I can remember. Dec and Jan have been cold as hell.

It got down to 22F here a little over a week ago, but yesterday was near 80F. I hear my a/c running as I type this.

I think it's too late for a really cold winter here in Sweden now. There are virtually no ice on the Baltic sea and without that cold easterly winds from Russia will warm up a bit when passing over the water. And there are almost no freezing temperatures in the ten days forecast at all. Seems like this will be another mild winter and I won't complain about it.

2016 was the warmest year on record since records started in the 1880s--three years in a row, each warmer than the year before. When I moved to southeastern WV in the early 70s, we were a straight zone 5a. The coldest temperature I've ever experienced was Christmas eve 1983--30 below zero. Now we're a 6a, probably closer to 6b, and the snowdrops have been in full bloom for a week with other bulbs coming up.

It won't end well.

I don't know about the long term, but at least in the relatively short term (last several years), it certainly has been mighty weird the last few seasons. There was RECORD, historic snow two and three winters ago here (NJ). There was the freaky polar invasion of record cold snaps deep into subtropical regions around the world. Then (locally at least), the pattern shifted dramatically to very mild Winters and relatively DRY (which continued into the Spring and Summer, and Fall), that's been about two years now with building drought conditions in the Northeast (and parts of the Southeast). On the current weather horizon, there seems to a major, Spring- like storm system that will impact the East this weekend into next week with tropical-like downpours (as there is a Caribbean, Gulf and Pacific connection apparently), with high wind and coastal erosion. Would not be surprised to hear about severe weather (tornadoes) breaking out in the South. Hard to keep up and know what to expect in terms of "normal".

mid-teen temps a few weeks ago hammered my sago palm but, as I ride around this week, I see magnolia stellata in full flower and m. soulangeana starting to break into flower. also, chaenomeles are blooming. I feel like we have not even had a winter this year (yet, watch our for February?).

"I see magnolia stellata in full flower and m. soulangeana starting to break into flower. also,..."

Not good, plants will be very vulnerable to damage from return to cold. NJ peach crop took a major hit last season as a warm late winter/early spring encouraged growth and the crop got decimated but return to cold.

P.S., I smelled Spring this morning in the air..., moist boxwood shrubs mixed with the distinct activity of neighborhood SKUNK.

Everyone always braces for winter in October, but the last few years the serious winter weather didn't hit until February.

The last few days, we've been experiencing a genuine January thaw! We don't get them every year but after the last few weeks of temps below zero, it feels rather nice.

"last few years the serious winter weather didn't hit until February"

50's and not a cloud in the sky here..., right now. Incoming major nor'easter (with big rain and WIND). Expecting lots of power outages in the MidAtlantic to New England. In a week or so, should get cooler.

If this is a La Niña Winter that's fine by me. Overcast, rainy and mild for the next week or so. Predictably the witch hazels are lovin' it, pix taken this morning in MD, WHAT GREAT FRAGRANCE.

Those El and La Nino years are not too easy to figure out. The El Nino Winters of 2016 brought California very little rain; this La Nina winter is bringing them TONS! Glad to see the West FINALLY getting rain and plenty of snow.

subtropix, seems to me El Nino isn't nearly as important as relatively cool water in the northeast Pacific forcing the jetstream south into central/south CA. Last winter that water was warm & the jetstream consequently farther north into the Pacific NW & Canada.

Sam, witch hazel in the southwest VA woods typically bloomed in late Nov (pic taken around Thanksgiving):

Nor'easter rain has turned to rain/snow here in west MD -- lawns covered, but roads are OK so far.

I think sam is posting pics of H. X intermedia though, so it's not exactly comparable. My 2 large intermedia cultivars are not blooming yet, which I think underscores how delayed seasons are for me, which is a good thing. Having cold water nearby means winter days do not warm up very much.

Edit: a few flowers are opening on 'Jelena', on the most sheltered branches, but nothing like the picture sam posted. Conversely, my Camellia 'Survivor' is still opening flowers! Which is by far the latest it is has even been doing that. I hope we don't pay for this mildness in February. BTW sam suddenly I am assuming you work in our state's esteemed nursery industry...most people don't plant witch hazels in that way haha.

Here camellias are starting to bloom, as well as some daffodils. There is also some type of mahonia putting off yellow flowers, but haven't seen the foliage up close.

WELL!, Today it was in the 60's!, but tomorrow there will be near BLIZZARD conditions. (Used to be, in the olden' days, a "blizzard" by definition was partly defined by very low temperature..., they tossed that criterion, so, now, just lots of snow and wind.) Expecting lots of heavy, WET snow and wind early tomorrow in NJ, maybe some "thunder snow". Not expecting much damage to the Camellias (which have buds swelling to bloom), nor the Windmill Palm, but may have snow load issues on Magnolia grandifloras.

In my book, this is a East Coast, classic nor'easter, SNOWSTORM..., not a blizzard. I only remember ONE storm that I would classify as a "blizzard" in all my born days. Might have been in the 70's (a very cold decade as I recall), and I can still remember the arctic COLD (teens/low 20's), FINE, DRY, SAND-like snow that weighs NOTHING, sweeping the ground as in a desert sandstorm, and painful to the face. This snow, tomorrow, will weigh a TON and be a bit/h to shovel. BIG difference for us humans and trees, (not just semantics)!

Yep, We could get 8-12 inches of snow or more here tomorrow. I hope that there's no damage to any of my trees because this will be a heavier wet snow.

Having a thunderstorm right now, there is supposed to be snow in the mountains. I just hope the storm isn't bad enough to destroy anything --- I have some loropetalums and forsythias getting ready to bloom, and roses getting new leaves and growth.

One advantage of being nearer to the coast, is that real warmth is delayed compared to further inland..., where it can start getting ridiculously warm these days in February. March and April..., only to be potentially hit by subarctic, killing cold. I work about 10 miles further inland than where I live and can feel the difference in the Spring big time. Still too cold in my yard for the forsythias.

Winter Blooming Camellia.

Picture taken January 25th but the tree's still blooming in February.

Now we have 8-10 inches of snow covering the ground from today's Blizzard.

Really a pleasant surprise, winter blooming camellia in Baltimore City, pic taken Monday.

Now predicting 60 on Sunday with mild temps all of next week (50's). Missed out on the recent New England blizzard (which I do enjoy as well). Compare this year to last when it was in the single digits and the furnace decided to DIE! Also caught up on dramatic rain deficit but I hope Spring and Summer do not revert back to drought as in recent years. As they say..., what a difference a year makes!

subtropix: We had to replace our furnace this winter too! Fortunately it was in the 60s that day!

It got so nice (40's) last weekend that we went to a city park called "Blacks grove" after an old sea captain that once owed the land. (actually 2 miles outside the city limits) The snow had warmed then refroze so you could walk across the top without breaking through and see everything good without leave on the brush.

Many large Fraxinus nigra, Betula papyrifera and other native trees. Gourgeous day, picks up the spirit.

60+ acres of forest with a creek running through it. Ski/hiking/biking trails.

First & second picture: Quercus macrocarpa. Third pic: Abies balsama. Fourth: Picea glauca. And last: Pinus strobus.

Sunrise this a.m., showcasing Quercus bicolor. Our winter has been quite mild, overall.

There is a downside, we're gonna have more pests like stink bugs which would normally be killed off by the cold :(

"Tomorrow's forecast is an unheard of 73°."

No big deal, high arctic temperatures have been over 30 Celcius degrees above normal.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/02/01/beyond-the-extreme-scientists-marvel-at-increasingly-non-natural-arctic-warmth/?utm_term=.b5b9c84f7cf1

For those of us with pets, ticks are alive and well. I am not sure if they are dormant when it's cold like it should be, but, it seems like they are active more than they usually are at this time of year. Oh, and the stink bugs have been a big pain all winter.

Another "Winter" day here and we had to use the air while driving on the highway. Which is pretty bizarre in NJ..., in FEBRUARY! Near record level temps tomorrow too.

I have the A/C on inside today, as well as ceiling fans. It's a stuffy 77 degrees (f) inside and made it up to 80 degrees (f) outside today. I finally got my pawpaw trees and buttonbush from the missouri conservation department and I planted those, finished up my niwaki pruning, cut back some liriope. It's been a rather productive day.

Trident maple today.

They can take some feeeze at this stage, but anything below ~22F would be bad.

We are also way too dry already.

I'm hoping for a wet, cool to normal March, Cold enough to prevent growth from advancing to much more until late in the month, but not so cold as to do too much freeze damage to what's already popping out.