I'm in TX and it's been T-shirt weather from Feb. to Oct. I remember a few years ago and it was not like this in Texas. Just wondering if winters are not as bad in New England/ anywhere North or if anyone there has noticed a change in weather.

I'm also from TX but I have relatives in Alaska. We were up there a few years ago and whenever they pointed out a glacier, they would talk about how much bigger it used to be. They told us the glaciers have receeded tremendously over the last 10-15 years.

Well, let's see, they had 2 feet of snow in Buffalo a few weeks ago. If you are coming to visit, bring your long johns.

Interesting you bring that up... normally here in MN we have a week of below-zero temps in January, but this year we had none.

Like Budman says, we had a freak storm recently. We had two feet of extremely heavy snow which brought down hundreds of thousands of trees and knocked out power for a week. It happened on Oct. 12th. The next day was sunny and pleasant and all the snow melted.

For the past two years, we have barely had any snow at all. And the usmmers have been very dry.

I've noticed the changes in weather here for a few years now.

Here in New England, the growing season has grown longer, spring starts earlier, the foliage season is getting later, and hard winter frost has decreased. The ground no longer freezes as deeply as in the past, and as a result bugs that spend the winter underground are thriving; some no longer go dormant at all. We have some new pests, such as winter moths, that could not previously survive in this climate. Trees now grow at mountain altitudes they once could not, and trees that need colder winters, such as sugar maples, are showing severe stress. The landscaping program where I take classes has an entire new course that deals with revisions to past guidelines and general wisdom about planting and growing things in new England.

We had years in the 1950's that were SO hot in Chicago, people were dying that didn't have air conditioning. 1953 was one in August through Sept. that was over 90 for so long, babies had to be brought to ac units in the hospitals, and the general population did not have ac in great numbers. And we have had droughts, we had one in 2005, and one sometime in the '60's too, I can remember. And then we had 10 years of huge snow and cold winters in patterns from 1968 to 1979. I can remember a spell when we never went above 10 degrees F. for 66 days, and was actually under zero for thirty something. I know because a good friend from the West moved back to AZ. In the '70's too, I can remember having to wrap scarves around the kids' heads so they could breath without the breathe forming and making ice near their mouths.

The weather of the earth has varied immensely in various patterns throughout it's long existence as a mass with atmosphere, with some ice ages having glaciers covering much of the ocean and land areas that are now ice free. At other times the caps have been smaller and almost the entire earth has had low water temperate seas/ marsh. Meteors have put the earth into a solid 10 to 100 year "winter" many times. The published material is mixed.

Some stats scientists say that there is absolutely no real proof for this period being any different. They say it is like looking at a grain of sand and trying to map the entire beach, a false exponent. Others comment different, especially noted forest cover percentages. Most by great majority say that natural events, like volcanos, meteors, land mass drop offs, all will event time weather patterns short and long term to some extent. They don't know what either fraction is of the whole.

I do think that Chicago's weather has always been harsh in my living relatives lifetimes, but is tending to milder extremes now. I would say our winters have been milder now for about 8 years. We usually still have 3 or so good blizzard days each season.

But if you read records of the Native Americans in this area, they have "meeting" histories that make some of the 1600's to 1800's look like they were much milder than now around the Great Lakes.