Last winter was the harshest winter I've ever lived thru, this winter has been the opposite. What the heck is going on?? (maybe a rhetorical question, lol, because who really knows?)

Ref: "http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45799486/ns/us_news-christian_science_monitor/t/blame-arctic-refrigerator-mild-winter-so-far/"

New Englanders, who perhaps are perceived as weather complainers, are truly not: They(we)are following the historical cultural scripts and tidings of our public discussion protocol set in motion by the Colonists. For centuries the New England weather has been a safe subject for public discussion, despite the velocity or direction of the wind. Observations of the weather are usually not 'complaints'; they are, quite simply, observations. How those 'complaints' are construed may depend upon the listener's ear, if unfamiliar with the custom.

If one has the time and interest, Mark Twain's 1873 speech about New England weather sums it up nicely - link below.

I heard that this is an El Nino year, something to do with the polar regions and an effect on the gulf stream. That could explain a lot. Obviously climate change has affected our weather in a broader sense, but I'm guessing the El Nino thing is why we don't have snow this winter.

"If we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries - the ice storm - when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top - ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice beads, frozen dewdrops, and the whole tree sparkles, cold and white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume. [Applause.] Then the wind waves the branches, and the sun comes out and turns all those myriads of beads and drops to prisms, that glow and burn and flash with all manner of colored fires, which change and change again, with inconceivable rapidity, from blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold; the tree becomes a spraying fountain, a very explosion of dazzling jewels; and it stands there the acme, the climax, the supremest possibility in art or nature, of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence! One cannot make the words too strong. [Long continued applause.]

Month after month I lay up my hate and grudge against the New England weather; but when the ice storm comes at last, I say: "There, I forgive you, now; the books are square between us; you don't owe me a cent; go, and sin no more; your little faults and foibles count for nothing; you are the most enchanting weather in the world!"

Of course, ice storms are rough on the trees, but they are undeniably beautiful.

Claire

trying again below

I've lived in New England my whole life and go by the old saying, "If you don't like the weather in New England, wait a minute. It'll change." My mother's contempt for weather forecasters & their frequent errors is best expressed in her words, "If you want to know what the weather is, look out the window."

Judging from Twain's insightful speech (thanks Jane), New England's unpredictable weather is as changeable in 2012 as it was 250+ years ago. I detected no complaint in terrene's post but rather curiosity and concern for the unseasonably mild weather's potential impacts on our gardens & the critters with whom we share them.

I remember another ice storm, when I went out with my camera to capture the sparkling ice on the mountain laurel beside my driveway. Looking through the view finder, at first I thought the mountain laurel was moving but then realized it was me, sliding sideways down the driveway, camera focused on the brilliant foliage as I slid slowly toward the road in my sturdy winter boots. I had to wonder how far I'd go since I lived 3/4 of the way up what had originally been named Steep Gutter Road.

Claire, in Twain's time the ice storm was not only beautiful but was probably welcome precisely because they caused damage to trees. There were no power lines to worry about, and imagine how much easy fire wood was suddenly at their fingertips!

I read the term windfall originated to describe the wood that fell or was broken off trees after an unexpected storm. Apparently, during colonial times, all standing trees were property of the King...colonists were not allowed to cut trees, but they were allowed to collect the fallen wood - a "windfall".

Without the usual snow cover, it's easier to do stuff like garden or yard cleanup, tree work, pruning, etc. I've jumped on the chance to be out in the back yard getting ahead on the chores now - cleaning up sticks and wood, open burning, and removal of invasive woody plants. Also, was able to have a little tree work done 2 weekends ago, that is not possible with the usual snow cover in mid-January.

Corunum, that article was interesting, although it's more than a month old so I wonder if any other parts of the country have gotten any snow yet? The Arctic Oscillation sounds interesting and how nice that high pressure decided to lock the cold air up towards the Arctic this year.

When my son learned his zone had changed from 5b to 6a thanks to the new zone map, he said he will plant an orange tree. I asked him, "Mandarin or Valencia?" He replied, "Navel." His tail had been in a slight knot that I was borderline 5b/6a while he was a solid 5b living 14 miles south of me. Thus is family harmony restored thanks to the USDA.

I come from hardy New England stock myself and I bet those hardy ones would have loved living in my "wimpy winter" area. Shoveling snow and keeping fires going all day and night can be wearing, as I'm sure some of us know all too well.

I figure the "hardy" gene is still in my DNA and could be expressed if need be, but I'm happy to leave it dormant for now.

Claire

I've been here for sixteen years now and I too recognize this winter as unusually warm and snow-free but I'm definitely embracing it. I'm going to plant some vegetables out early this year to take advantage of it. I am hoping that everything doesn't start blooming early just to get zapped by a cold snap.

Claire

Central - northern New England is for all intents and purposes as cold as the upper mid-West. Maybe those hardy northern New Englanders aren't posting here much? (too busy loading the wood stove and too short a growing season?) Anyway, Boston is a full zone warmer than where I live, and I feel zone envy towards those who live there or near the Coast.

Anyway, "where do I plant the palm trees" is right...as a gardener I want to go in the WARMER direction, not colder! My fantasy is to garden year-round...

As it began to get dark at approximately 4:55 p.m. on Saturday, October 29, 2011 the power went out here in north central CT a couple miles south of the MA state line. Electrical wires were ripped off my house by falling tree limbs, there were piles of broken tree branches on my driveway and front lawn higher than the roof of my house and a limb from the neighbor's tree punctured my roof. The entire town had no power, no phone service (including cell) & no access to the road but since it was completely blocked with downed branches & electrical wires, there wasn't anywhere to go.

As the sun came up October 30, neighbors began checking to see who needed help and how they could help them. My son somehow managed to get to my place and started cutting up the downed limbs. My daughter & granddaughter showed up and helped drag the limbs off the driveway. I fired up my woodstove and kept it going 24/7 until the power was restored...around 4 p.m. on November 10th. A few neighbors asked to come in and warm up...they did, but didn't stay long.

I used water collected in rain barrels to flush the toilet. I emptied the refrigerator and threw away several hundred dollars' worth of food. It didn't occur to me to apply for any government reimbursement for losses sustained from the storm.

People were traumatized by the severity of the storm and its aftermath. No one (except a few idiots) complained or whined about not being able to flush their toilets, watch TV, play video games or cook something on the stove. A few noisy generators ran 24/7 by those lucky enough to have them...but no one complained about it.

I learned it takes quite a long time to heat up a small pot of soup on the top of a woodstove.

Some folks did complain that with so many downed branches & electrical wires + blocked roads, their kids couldn't go trick-or-treating on Halloween. I don't think too many folks paid a lot of attention.

When the power came back on I simply cleaned the ashes out of the woodstove and hauled more wood inside so I'd be prepared for the next storm.

Is there a complaint in anything I wrote? The facts are that severe weather happens. Our ability to cope with & recover from it is a personal responsibility.

I heard folks complain about downed electrical wires, meters ripped off houses, damaged roofs and horses killed by barn roofs that collapsed after the storm.

I don't recall anyone complaining about the weather.

The last I checked the coastal areas are also part of New England. I didn't realize that the term "hardy New Englander" had a disclaimer with it that it only refers to people in far northern New England. If anything, this makes my point. Hardy New Englanders do not live in southern New England. There is no such thing.

This I think explains the weather talk nicely. We are programmd by the past still... and the local news responds. I mean think about it.. who STILL drinks the least Tea in the USA? new England... Why.. they switched to coffee after the Tea party...
Really we do all sorts of things that were handed down to us by the past that we do not even think about. The weather obsession is one of them.

Michelle---As hardy as they come a native New Englander and Bostonian who at 38 years old has seen her share of snow and done her share of shovling...

Back when the New England Gardening Forum was first being considered, there were proposals to establish different forums based on gardening zones, but I think the New England region as a whole won out because so many people identify with it historically and maybe culturally.

But there is no way we can compare my wimpy winter (and nasty coastal storms) to blizzard-heavy weather in the northern states.

And, frankly, none of us on this forum, with regular internet access that's associated with electric service, lives in the harsh conditions of New England in earlier times. We can rise to the occasion and be 'hardy' during isolated weather events, but soon enough the power comes back on, the heat is back up, and we can drive out (or take public transit) to buy food and other essentials.

And when this 'Hardy New Englander' discussion runs its course, as it does most winters, we'll still have several months left of 'winter' to endure.....

Claire (complaining to pass the time to spring)

Town of Templeton, MA
Cemetery: Old Burial Ground On the Common
Name: Mrs. Phebe Wiley, also Thomas (age 9 months); Silas (age 8 months); Samuel (age 4 years)
Death Date: "06 May 1791 with infant daughter at her left hand"
Age: in the 37th year of her age
Inscription: Friends and Physicians could not save
These mortal bodys from the grave
Nor can these graves confine us here
When Christ calls us to appear

She was married to my however-many-greats grandfather, Moses Wiley. According to the birth records, she bore him 10 children. He remarried in 1794 so it was Lydia Holmes of New Braintree, MA who was my however-many-greats grandmother. Her son David was born in Templeton, MA October 21, 1798.

I've been there, visited the Old Burial Ground on the Common and found their graves. Moses' mother is buried beside Phoebe but I've yet to locate Moses' or Lydia's graves.

I try to imagine what life must have been like for Phebe and Lydia in those days, especially during harsh winters, but just can't picture it.

Ancestry research is a great way to while away chilly winter days when the garden is dormant. Massachusetts kept fabulous birth, death & marriage records; New Hampshire not so much, or at least I didn't have any luck with NH.

Gardenweed, I walk in cemetaries and read tombstones from time to time and it becomes obvious, 100+ years ago or so, it was commonplace for people to die young. I would have no doubt been dead by age 52, probably of something like a tooth infection!

I grew up in Baltimore, had parents from Louisiana and I don't panic about snowstorms. It is just weather. HOWever, when it affects my garden...windstorms that flatten the whole garden, droughts that kill, a heat wave that blasts all the tulips or peonies....that kind of weather I am absolutely entitled to complain about. And I do and I will. I"ll have plenty of company in these parts, too.

fun discussion. who cares if someone pops up like clockwork every year to razz us about it and we get sucked into it every time.
idabean

Weather is a shared experience that is a 'safe' topic of conversation, that I rarely interpret as complaining.

Steve

What is not mentioned anymore is that even before the blizzard it had been a winter of constant heavy snow. It started snowing in early December and was bitterly cold so it never melted. I remember going to Christmas parties and the snow was already very deep.

Then, just two weeks before the infamous blizzard, we had a storm that put 22" of snow on top of what was already there in my suburb north of Boston. So the 30+ inches we got in the blizzard went on top of a very deep snow cover. Funny, after last year, I don't remember roofs collapsing. And we only lost power for six or eight hours.

Dukakis shut the state down, a wise decision, so we all stayed home and made do--talked to the neighbors etc. We had only lived here a year or so and I remember wondering if this was a typical New England winter....

BRAVO!!

I'd forgotten how much snow we already had, that is a good point. I also think the recorded amounts of snow received in that storm are deceiving because of all the wind and the size of the drifts. We have a photo of where the car was supposed to be in the driveway and you can't see it because the snow was higher than the roof of the car.

And today--Sunday the 19th of February--I am becoming increasingly amazed by how benign this winter continues to be. It is not just the warmth, but the lack of storminess as well. And dare I say it is getting a bit dry! I am wondering if drought will be the story for spring 2012.

I remember the Blizzard in 1978, but I really don't remember the weather leading up to it. That is interesting that we had rain. I'm in Metro West, and we are often different than what you get in Southeast MA, but we could have also had rain.

I agree we could use some rain. Fortunately it has been a mild winter, because it would have been much harder on plants' roots to go through a snowless winter that was very cold and dry.

I remember the snow of 1978. Here in northern NE it lasted nearly until spring. I don't recall any rain so I assume it fell as snow here. I also remember large snowfalls in the late 60s and early 70s, both in Boston and Vermont.

Thanks Steve, for the interesting and reassuring article. It sounds like, since I have no plants in containers wintering over, that I needn't have serious worries about the health of my plants, shrubs, and/or bulbs.

This is truly the oddest winter I can remember. Not a trace of snow, just an expanse of grass, green in patches.

I just love that I've been able to hang laundry & bedding on the clothesline every weekend since last fall. I'm not only saving on heating oil, I'm saving electricity too not using the dryer.

I checked this morning and I have snowdrops blooming along my south (full-sun) foundation.

The SWE varies pretty widely; snowfall depth can be converted to equivalent rain amount by as little as 10% (!) or up to something like 40% - so it might take a foot of snow to provide the equivalent to 3 or 4 inches of rain.

So, maybe we're heading for a drought, or maybe not - but it seems pretty early to worry, especially since the weather is even more unpredictable than usual this year.

The only complaining I did about the October snow was the nurtured trees and shrubs I lost from large oak trees and limbs crashing about. And I will complain about the money it's going to cost to have a tree company come in and finish the cleanup where my friend's chain saw couldn't go.

With today's oil prices, my oil bill is still sky high no matter the temp. I guess it could be worse (as a famous person has been known to say - LOL)

Complaining seems rational to me. It tips the scales the other way to balance out the mess. Mess. Complain. Move on.

I think the general approximate rain to snow ratio is 1" equals 1', but there are many variables. We're definitely on the dry side. Good reminder to water vulnerable evergreens. I am going to try to remember that the next warmer day we have - Wednesday I think.

Steve, thanks for the great link to growingwisdom.com and the use of Wilt Pruf, which is something I should use because we live along a windy river!

And yes, Vermontkingdom, I've also been worried about soil moisture, or I should say lack of it. Like many New Englanders we put our hoses away and turned off outside water in late fall.

Wendy, so funny! We've also decided to grill, especially since it will be in the 50s this week.

I love New England weather, even when it's abnormal as in this year, and don't ever want to move down south where weather stays more constant year-round. So even though we live along the Connecticut shore, I think of myself as a hearty New Englander � ready to face whatever Mother Nature throws my way!

Molie

And yes, normally such a snowless winter can be hard on plants if it is also cold and windy (ugh...I can't get January 2004 out of my head---ever). But this winter has been so warm we have not had any frost in the bare ground, which is very unusual. From a temperature standpoint, locations in the far south of New England have experienced a very normal Virginia winter.

I've also already done open burning twice since the season started (Jan 15th in this town) and have numerous new piles ready to burn. I have never burned during the winter and am usually trying to cram it all in at the last minute before the deadline (May 1st).

I'm practically giddy with anticipation for Spring this year. Between the tree damage of the October snowstorm, a few hours of tree work that was done last month, and pruning out the lot, I might have noticeably more SUN on several of the gardens! I love my trees, but get terrible "sun envy".

I took a chance planting some sun-loving winter sown perennials in beds where they only got a couple of hours around midday. They did okay but I'm guessing didn't really reach their full potential. It'll be interesting to see how they perform this year. By the same token, there are a number of part-sun plants that may not like where they're currently planted. I may find myself playing an extended game of put-'n-take this growing season!

Neighbor: What are you doing digging up all those plants?
Me: It's called gardening musical chairs! Wanna play?

How do you conduct your shade study? Do you just select times and dates and then record which plants are in sun or shade? What dates do you use?

Steve

The ground is not frozen here--very, very strange. And I took down so many trees near the house in advance of the October snowstorm--they had to go regardless--that I too am worried about my new sunny landscape and its effect on evergreens in particular.

As for grilling...what?...you don't grill when it's snowing? I have a great photo of my husband grilling in the "teeth of inclement weather" with a big grin on his face.

Ginny: Yes...the storm about 2 weeks before was indeed snow...everywhere. But there was a storm between that one and the Bilzzard of 78 which was rain in southern New England. That intervening storm is called the "Great Blizzard of 1978" in the Midwest. The link I provided describes the details. If you look closely at the weather map it shows southern New England in the warm sector---rain. That storm melted a lot of the snow from the 1st blizzard away--even in metro Boston. Most people just don't remember this one because it was rain. But it was a storm of historic magnitude in terms of barometric pressure and snowfall in the Midwest. That intervening storm was a blessing for us because it melted some (or all depending on your location) of the snow from that first blizzard....and then our Blizzard of 1978 happened about 1 week after that!

I saw the first Red-winged Blackbird yesterday and today as well. A grackle is here too. This morning I heard a red-wing singing. The hordes haven't arrived yet though.

Claire

The songs of the birds are so musical and pretty, almost as if the birds are just as pleased with this mild winter as us humans. There's a lot of activity at the feeders, especially a tan-colored plastic coachlamp feeder they all like best for some strange reason. They barely go near a similar feeder nearby. Even though it holds a lot of seed, I fill the tan plastic one every day but the other one has yet to need refilling.

Claire

Just saw about 30+ black birds ground feeding out there--they stood out against the half-inch of snow that fell overnight. Starlings maybe?

Claire