Yesterday the Boston Globe validated our subjective impression that this winter is rougher than usual and it’s really wearing people down.
“Boston has been blasted with 49 inches of snow so far this year, more than double the average at this date of 22 inches. Temperatures this frigid month are also well below the January average of 29.3 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. On many days the temperature plummeted more than 15 degrees below the historical average for that day.”
That’s quite a divergence from normal. No wonder we’re feeling battered. I recall that in the fall, there was neither an “El Nino” nor a “La Nina” in the Pacific, which is one of the reasons the forecasts for the winter were ambiguous. Apparently, a “La Nina” did develop, and that’s associated with harsher winters in the Midwest and Northeast of the U.S. and in Canada.
Of course, this winter is just continuing the general cooler, very stormy weather pattern we had all summer, so we should have seen it coming! *sigh*