ITD, A lot of this knowledge is new to me, too. A couple months ago I got into a conversation with a relative I don't see very often (who happens to be an environmental scientist) and he got me on a renewed "learning new stuff" kick. I'm still processing a lot of what I'm seeing.
When I checked some of my own weather station's records I did discover a general cooling trend since around 2000. Couple that with the fact that Winni has had some late iceouts since 2000 (I think 2 of them were May iceouts.) Last year's would've been a May iceout if the April 16 storm's wind hadn't ripped it apart so violently as it did.
Off the top of my memory...........
May 2002: Accumulating snow as far south as the Boston suburbs.
October 2002: Ditto.
Winter 02-03: Snowy and cold. Big snowstorms, even in Boston. I got lots of great snow pictures.
January 2004: Record cold. Boston Harbor partially frozen. Wicked cold.
December 2004: Snowstorms 'n' Ice storms. Even in Boston. Great pics.
January 2005: The Blizzard of 2005 hits Boston area with more than 2 feet and hurricane force winds on the coast. 38 inches of snow at Salem MA.
The rest of winter 2005: I got a ton of snowstorm pics with my new camera.
Fall 2005: Unusually cold during the great rain storm. The rain was snow in the White Mountains where it reached record levels. Top-to-bottom ski runs possible at Wildcat before Halloween. I got great pics of peak fall foliage covered with snow while I was driving around Vermont.
(**The unusually warm December coincided with a strong El Nino in the Pacific, which broke down in Mid January.**)
The rest of winter 2007: Very, very cold. Coldest temp occurred in March. White Easter.
Last summer: A few really hot days but otherwise cooler than normal, especially in the second half of August.
** Last fall saw another break in the cold trend, for what reason I don't know. After the break was over, last winter got started. Early.
Once again, that's all from the top of my memory, not the official records. I did check my written records going back through all of last year and I found only a couple of months above normal, with the rest being either near or below normal, especially in late winter/spring.
For more information, you can Google "Global Cooling" and it will lead you to some very interesting legitimate info (mixed in with the ridiculous panic sites you might expect from a search like that.) Just use your common sense to decide which is which.
For more info on the solar cycle, do this Google search: "Cycle 24." Also try "Cycle 24 effect on climate" or "Solar cycle effect on climate."
For information on Volcanoes, which have a proven track record of affecting the climate, visit the Volcanism Blog at
volcanism.wordpress.com. Also do these Google searches: "Mt. Pinatubo 1991 effect on climate"... and the really interesting one, "Mt. Tambora 1815"...."New England Year Without A Summer 1815."
Another alternative viewpoint (and very interesting) climate/nature blog is
wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com.
You can also try
www.climateaudit.org.
Finally:
www.iceagenow.com. At first glance it looks wacky and that bothered me. But my relative recommended it to me, so I kept my promise by giving it a chance. I discovered they have links to lots of mainstream news stories that form an interesting picture when they're put side-by-side in the same place. The site's maintainer likes to add comments in the middle of the news stories, which I find annoying, but he also provides links to the originals.
Many of these are from a growing number of scientists who are ditching the global warming theory. I present them to you as "the other viewpoint" because if you want Global Warming info, turn on the TV to just about any station. These present info that's not popular at the moment, but nonetheless worth reading. A note on the legitimacy of blogs: Yes, there are a lot of nut-jobs doing blogs out there. Just remember that there are just as many "alternative view" blogs that have a track record of forcing legitimate news into the unwilling TV/newspaper spotlight. In other words, don't discount it just because it goes against what's popular... just learn as much as you can from both sides and decide for yourself.
I haven't yet. I'm still learning, and I've just realized there's too much I don't know. I can only say this for now: Cooling is more dangerous than warming. In the world of meteorology, cold air is the heavyweight bully while warm air is the lightweight panzy with the 'kick me' sign on his back. Things usually get more interesting when cold air starts pickin' fights.
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Now... Bringing this back to the topic of Memorial Day Weekend weather... still looks awesome!!! I'm really looking forward to it, after all this chilly stuff. And if this cooling trend of the last couple years were to continue, I'd expect this week & coming weekend to be an example of the back-and-forth temps that would probably be a common occurrence all summer long. But again, that's just a guess and only a guess.