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hour_of_the_rat t1_j4vrfi4 wrote

Reply to comment by dmatthews827 in This winter is a repeat of the winter of 2019-2020 by nba123490

I feel like temps are at least 20 - 30 degrees higher than they should be.

I was born in 1981, and after 1988 I spent every Winter playing on a frozen lake. It would freeze 20" deep, and ice-out wasn't until the end of April. You could drive a truck on it, and we did. Until about 2013-5, the freezes were long, hard, deep. For weeks the temps wouldn't go above freezing. After 2015, there would be entire Winters where the lake ice would either come close to being safe--but not quite--or just not freeze over at all. This is one of those Winters. No ice.

This is horribly abnormal, and the consequences are going to be mosquitoes in March, insects hatching so early that migratory birds miss the overlap dates resulting in large die-offs for lack of food, etc.

It's bad. It's real bad.

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Miami_Vice-Grip t1_j4vyx0q wrote

Born in late 80s here, it's absurd that people who've lived in Mass for 40, 50 years and "don't see anything wrong" like HOW? It's extremely obvious how warm it is.

When we're not even sure if it's definitely gonna be below freezing at night shit is fucked.

People love to harp on Americans for not knowing geography or whatever, but the actual danger is not knowing biology/ecology. I swear, if everyone understood what was at stake there would be much more uproar.

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BenovanStanchiano t1_j4xh8wz wrote

There used to be a time when it would snow and then, for the most part, there would be some degree of snow around until spring because it was never cold enough for long enough for it all to go away. Now it snows and the ground is back ASAP.

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Miami_Vice-Grip t1_j4xofx5 wrote

*never warm

But yeah, it used to go below zero during the days somewhat regularly.

People acting like 50-60F in December is normal like I just can't believe it. Do people not remember the concept of snow days?

Just look at like, Calvin and Hobbes when shit is set during winter. That's what it was like when I was a kid. Snow pants, sledding, snow men, snow balls, etc. And for weeks!

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AchillesDev t1_j4xvpdz wrote

Reddit also skews really young, and I get the feeling that local subs are mostly populated by transplants trying to get a handle on the local culture.

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inuvash255 t1_j4wmcbh wrote

I was born in 1991, and I remember growing up with tons of snow, blizzards dropping 2'. I remember by this time of year, having the snow built up to 3-4' in some places.

This weather is wicked weird, and the thawing and freezing cycle does a ton of damage to our roads.

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ohmyashleyy t1_j4vyj3z wrote

I think 20-30 is a stretch. That would imply we should be in the teens for normal temp and that’s been quite cold here for as long as I can remember.

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Zreaz t1_j4x7rse wrote

Sorry but you’re heavily misremembering. Not denying climate change, but temperatures and snowfall totals have not significantly changed in MA since at least the 80s (as far back as I’ve gone extensively). In fact, the 2010s was one of the best decades in over 100 years for a good winter.

I’m trying to find a comment I already made that has specific numbers but you can look it up yourself pretty quickly.

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