Well, with my apologies to the paper, they DO have a link to the article.

Here is a link that might be useful: Coldest February in 50 Years ???

THis morning Brooklyn NY awoke to 1" of snow which was TOTALLY NOT predicted. One inch is a big deal in NYC. These guys are wrong ~50% of the time I find and even more on long term forecasting. Sure its to be cold... but record is far different - let see. I would take an added measure to be on the safe side, but not bet my bank account on it.

Just remember newspapers try to sell headlines and that one is sure to catch attention and sell papers. It takes many models for forecasting. I find chubby squirrels to be my indicator that works best, lol.

They love making their prediction based on the safety of whats already happened.....and since they are usually wrong.I will take this as a good sign that we are almost out of it!

That said,I am sure things will not warm up to quick and we still have a ways to go.....AND,for the most part,February WILL be cold as in below normal....just like it's been(excluding this past November),for the past 2 years+.

One thing that is a little scary is that most of the existing snow cover was also present during the last Arctic outbreak and now it is being extended farther south.
If this continues and we do see another big Arctic outbreak the south(including Florida) will probably see another round of record breaking cold,maybe not as long of duration but possibly more extreme!

from Livonia SE Michigan for non-Miochiganders). I hope their wrong. knock on wood it has been quite mild so far.

Michigan has been snowless, storm tracks have stayed pretty far west this year, even given me rain twice in a month, all in a below normal temp wise Dec/Jan...

I'm going with dry and normal to maybe a little below here in Feb, although i think it does seem possible that Feb breaks warm at some point. I think MI east and south is where i would be worrying about cold.

Good to see you back Andyx2

I like your optimism, guys. I hope you're all right.

The thing that I've noticed here in Michigan this year is that, while these arctic blasts have been going through, our lows are still on the mild side. Last night was like 2 at my place, pretty good for the end of January.

So far, all of the tops of my bamboos are still pretty green, with just a little tipburn. We'll see what happens. Many years by now, they are toast at this point. Of course, I've also had years where the killing freeze event didn't happen until late in the winter, when I thought I would be out of the woods.

Dennis
SE Michigan

I am glad to burst your bubble. Every other weather agency has SE Michigan a bit above normal. I usually check out Accuweather and Wunderground.

http://www.accuweather.com/us/mi/detroit/48201/forecast-15day.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=1&metric=0

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=48201

After this coming week, they both seem to say we will be considerably above normal for a good part of February (upper 30's to mid 40's).

Glad they don't agree with NWS.

We missed the last Arctic blast...not so this time. Finally had temps hit the single digits last night. My trachy looks okay. Only protection are some Christmas lights on the ground and around the trunk, with a tarp wrapped loosely around. Unfortunately, the GFI outlet providing electric to the lights failed last week. So...it's been essentially unprotected through this hit. My belief is that this guy has been so acclimatized over the years that it's now "unbreakable". By Monday, as well, we are due for a nice warm up. Back to the upper 30s, low 40s.

I dont think I made it into the single digits, but most of the stations by me are saying around 12F. My pindo palm was at 37F last night in the protection and it about 42F in there right now. The frost coth on one of my windmill palms fell off, but it was a weak plant so in a way Im testing how low it can go. the other one has lights, a frost cloth, and a garbage bin, so it is fully protected. Camellia yuletides have a lot of dead leaves, but they were planted in brick planters so they may have seen too much cold in there, or the soil is too poor and they are declining from that. Fortunately they still have plenty of green so they will make it to spring, and my camellia thats 10 years old is still doing great with lots of healthy buds. The spanish moss is still looking good, im not sure if its dead or not, but i guess once we actually get above freezing all the damage, if any, will be seen. My sabal minor is covered, and my needle palm is in a good spot and looks good.

Trishmick, glad to hear that your windmill palm made it through single digits. They seem like they have the ability to become established in a zpne 7 in a good microclimate and after a few years. Good luck everyone!

It's not that palms are the only plants that look sad during this arctic cold. The leaves of my Rhodies and Acuba are all curled up for protection and Magnolias take on a real dark green color--even Yuccas look frigid. Temps bottomed out at 13 here (14 F last winter). I don't mind the the snowstorms of February but hate this deep freeze!

I should probably qualify that single digits factors in the wind chill. Actual temp in the teens somewhere. There was a pretty consistent "breeze" Fri.overnight. Not unusual for the Shore here. I ran an extension cord from the outlet by my koi pond over to the windmill, so it got a little warmth last night. I say little...pretty chilly again when the sun sank. Bottom line...it looks fine today, no signs of leaf burn, emerging spears are strong, and I'm maybe getting a little too confidant that this old guy can now withstand just about anything our zone can dish out. Man, I can't wait until Spring...

The cold is finally ending for now here in Brooklyn as temps are starting to go over freezing. We bottomed out at 13-14 degrees here. Palms did well so far with some lites and being covered. Today I will vent them when it hits the 30s.

The days are finally a little longer with dark coming after 5PM. When it gets dark before 5pm - it feels weird.

Hey Brooklyngreg,

One of the best things about living in Michigan is that we are the very west end of the eastern time zone. It happes to be one of the widest time zones in the world at the point over Michigan. During the Winter 12-21, it get's dark around 5:15 to 5:30 p.m. During the Summer 06-21, it doesn't get dark until after 10:30 or 11:00 p.m.

If you are along Lake Michigan, or in the Upper Peninsula, it doesn't get dark in late June until 11:30 p.m or Midnight.

Yes, I'm so glad that I live on the sunset end of a timezone. Maine, for example, has sunrise and sunset times a lot earlier than mine, which makes for even longer winter evenings and shorter summer evenings to work outdoors.

When I spent a week in Madison, WI at the 4th of July one year, the light broke on the eastern horizon at 4:15, and the sun was up a few minutes before 5:00, but set a little after 8:00. Kind of a waste of daylight.

IMO -- Daylights savings time should be made permanent, and maybe even bumped up an hour so that we are on Atlantic time zone. Yes, I realize that parents don't like their kiddies going to school in the dark in winter, and that would happen even more, but we could use the extra daylight in the evenings all year round to accomplish something outdoors, or even indoors.

Yes, the Northern zones have later summer sunsets and its a nice perk for living northward. Paris France has this as well - 10 pm summer sunsets; their ~42 degrees longitude. I think savingstime should just be permanent as well. However my point was that longer days hint of Sprin and eventually create warmer days over time.

When I travel south this time of year, I notice sunset significantly later in SC, GA, FL than we have in New York City.

Sunsets are later in these southern cities due to latitude and being further west than NYC in the Eastern time zone--there's less of a difference with sunrise.--Which if you're on vacation, you should be sleeping through anyway:).

Not cold here-could be mid 60's on this sunny norcal Sunday. Hey,just doing my public duty to provide weather balance!...

Hi
Will lend a bit more "balance" lol High today 72, to morrow 78. Has been dropping at night. Too much for some of my plants. On the plus side did not use the air the entire month of Jan.. So far Feb has been normal except for night time lows. My prediction is that this will continue through March with record low summer temps lol
This will be followed by a record low of hurricane activity.. gary

I'll go with a slightly below avg March-with +++ snow!
Much more hurricane activity this year.