AUSTIN (KXAN) — We have written in previous blogs that the winter season seems to be shrinking due to warmer temperatures. For the purposes of this story, we are talking about Meteorological Winter, the time from December 1 to February 28.
While the winter season is getting shorter, what winter there is is also getting warmer. In fact, according to our media partners at Climate Central, this fact is true for 98% of the United States.
Since 1970, 239 of 244 cities analyzed have been feeling more warmth and fewer chill days.
Data from Climate Central shows the winters are warming by an average of 4°, with the greatest warming in traditionally locales including the Northeast and the Upper Midwest. It’s the Ohio Valley where the warming has been greatest where the temperatures have increased by 7° to 8°. The reference is to that part of the country that encompasses a good portion of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, extreme southwest Pennsylvania, and the extreme northwest corner of West Virginia.
The bottom line here is that cold days are becoming less cold and deep winter freezes aren’t lasting as long as in years and decades past…