T-shirts in December? Even Naked Quad runners can attest to the fact that this year's winter has seemed unseasonably mild. After a warm end to the fall semester, most students didn't break out their winter coats until yesterday, when the minimal snow marked a change from the pre-break mild weather. Jumbos expecting to brave the low temperatures and frequent snowstorms associated with New England winters had been surprised by the climate change.
"I wasn't expecting it to stay so warm into December. I would normally expect a Boston winter to have a greater amount of snow accumulation. I didn't even need to layer up before going out," sophomore Allison Cohen said.
For students who hail from milder regions, the warm weather seems about right for winter, but still not right for a winter in Boston.
"I can't believe it was seventy degrees in December," sophomore Wendy Carman said. "I'm from Seattle, so I'm used to milder winters. But I expected it to be much colder here, especially after all of last year's snows."
Such unseasonable weather, while relaxing, inevitably prompts debate about the extent of global warming. But those worried about whether the greenhouse effect is to blame should not make general conclusions, says Associate Professor Jack Ridge. The geology professor says that the weather conditions of a particular year are not necessarily indicative of larger trends.
"It would be more than just speculation to draw any conclusions about this year's mild winter, especially before it's over," Ridge said. "The mild and dry winter so far appears to be a function of a jet stream pattern, which has occurred in the past. When we talk about global climate change or global warming we should be referring to trends that have occurred over decades, not simply one odd year."
Ridge said that the season's lack of precipitation, rather than its warmth, is of the most significance for people in the northeast.
"It's been very dry leading up to winter. There hasn't been a lot of snowfall. We [in Massachusetts] rely a lot on a recharging [of reservoirs and the water table] in the spring from snow runoff and rain," Ridge said. "The fall was very dry so there has been a lot of evaporation, and the water table is low. This could create a problem in the summer. Some communities in the northeast may have to ration water. It's happened before. A lot of times people associate [these summer problems] with drought, but they could be due to a dry winter or a combination of both [a dry winter and drought]."
As yesterday's precipitation demonstrated, the weather could still return to more traditional New England patterns - snowy, bitter, cold.
"This winter may be a little anomalous; I believe we had two record days of warmth in December. [The temperature] was in the seventies," Ridge said. "But that's not way out of the ordinary. We haven't had extreme cold yet, but the winter's not over yet!"
