I am near Sacramento and I have loved this mild temperature. I've only used my furnace twice.

In my 86 years in this area, this is the normal winter weather I remember. Al

I think you meant "Isn't" ? 70 in December 6th now.

2014 is on track to be the warmest year on record, globally. Still unsure as to whether this is a natural cycle or manmade, but yeah, the world is definitely warming. What we don't know is how far it will go.

71 today..with plenty of wet soil. When we had a warm winter last year- we all thought the drought caused it. No excuses left!

The overall trends are affected by global warming, but it isn't that unusual for us to have both warm/wet and cold/wet storms. In fact, heaviest storms tend to come from the warm South Pacific, because they pick up so much moisture along the way.

When the high-pressure cycle moves down (south), we get the cold/dry or cold/wet out of the Arctic. When it moves up, we get the warm/dry or warm/wet weather out of the tropical Pacific.

January, for example, often has clear sunny days with high 60's temps that are simply gorgeous. That's when we CA gardeners laugh at East Coast gardeners and go have an impromptu picnic or patio BBQ [smile].