Incredible February Heat Records In Vermont, Northeast And Arctic Beyond Unprecedented

This was a snow covered scene in my St Albans Vermont
yard two days ago. Today, amid record heat, I felt like I
should have been planting flowers. 

This is just a quick Wednesday evening update, as I will have more to say about this tomorrow, but some temperatures were recorded today in Vermont and elsewhere are just beyond belief.

A bit of history: Last February, Burlington and Bennington, Vermont reached 72 degrees, breaking by a large margin the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Green Mountain State during the second month of the year.

At the time this happened, I remember saying that even in the worst case scenario for global warming or whatever is going on, chances are we wouldn't see something like that in our lifetimes.

Boy was I wrong!!! Bennington, Vermont reached an amazing 77 degrees today, five degrees above last year's record and so warm it's scary.  I mean, really scary. That's a typical summertime high temperature. In February!

A cold front arrived in Burlington today before maximum temperatures could reach their highest potential. Still, it got up to 69 degrees in Burlington. Had last year not set the February record, Burlington would have exceeded the previous record high for February, which until 2017 had been 62 degrees.

Also today, Montpelier reached 70 degrees, by far their hottest February reading on record. Elsewhere, New York City's Central Park got up to 78 degrees, its hottest February temperature on record.

While all this was going on, extreme weather was causing all kinds of issues elsewhere in the nation. Record lows are being reported in the northwestern third of the United States, but those lows, while very unusual, can't compete with the bizarre warmth it the Northeast.

An airmass with a record high amount of moisture for this time of year today unleashed flooding downpours in Louisiana and Arkansas. These are states that have had an increasing frequency of flooding in recent years and decades.

Also today, freezing rain was falling from Minnesota to Texas.

And up in the Arctic, temperatures are expected to rise above freezing around the North Pole by Sunday. That's something that used to never happen this time of year.

Arctic sea ice is actually decreasing in extent this week. The Arctic ice is already at a record low extent for this time of year. The ice should still be expanding this time of year. It's only February.

According to the Washington Post, temperatures in the Arctic are now as much as 45 degrees above normal. The northernmost weather station in Greenland was above freezing this week for a full 24 hours. This in a place where the sun set in October and won't rise above the horizon again until March. Yet, they've had a thaw.

I'm not a scientist, but these developments are all very unnerving.

I  MUST give you the caveat that an individual weather event isn't proof of global warming. But the extremes today are consistent with global warming. Also, in terms of extremes, today's weather is also beyond the worst fear of many climate scientists.

I'm sure things will settle down once the current wild weather pattern settles down, but today's weather news frightened me more than almost anything I've seen in my more than five decades on this Earth.