LibertyBell

but you'd think the opposite would be true, since more snow and cold breeds more snow and cold and patterns tend to get stuck. Some outside factor has to come in and dislodge them-- like the 2015-16 super el nino.

we need a massively active typhoon season out there to do that don't we?

and shows once again why crapitalism is unsustainable and we need price regulations (and not just in this area in many others too).

This is why crapitalism doesn't work and we need price regulations.

What I find so fascinating about octopus though and their settlements on the sea floor and why I talk so much about them is because they show us there is a different way to a higher intelligence than the mammalian/avian warm blooded route. These complex creatures are cold blooded invertebrates and yet they are so amazingly intelligent that it shows us that if intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe it may be in a form that we wouldn't even recognize at first if we somehow ran into it. Parrots and ravens too-- the usual refrain about birds is because they have small heads they must be unintelligent-- and "bird brained"-- it's definitely not true. Parrots and ravens actually have large complex brains and not all of it is in their heads-- birds' brains extend downward into their necks too. I believe what fueled rapid brain development in these creatures is a high protein diet. Ravens and octopi of course eat meat and parrots eat high protein nuts. And a high intelligence was necessary for all these creatures; in the case of birds, it was originally to process their extreme visual acuity and later for socialization skills and in the case of the octopus to be able to escape predators while also catch prey in its challenging environment and was also later adopted for socialization. All of the creatures I've mentioned are also known to make and use tools which also facilitated rapid brain development (it's a form of biofeedback, you need a complex brain to make tools and alter your environment but once you start doing that the mere act of doing that also makes for a more complex brain and higher intelligence.)

Hamsters are good that way because they are small and don't need much room. A large flying avian predator is a different story though. Smuggling in birds into the country is big business unfortunately. A few years ago at JFK a shipment of finches came in from some country in Africa packed inside those hair curling things (I dont know what they are called.) The shipment with over 400 of these tiny colorful birds was intercepted and sent back and so were the people who did it (they were deported.) You have to see how these birds are in the wild to see how happy and free they are. I've seen documentaries on parrots in cages in terrible living conditions where they are picking at their own feathers because they are depressed and trying to kill themselves. The more intelligent the animal the less happy it will be in a cage. Parrots are near the peak of avian intelligence, about the same intelligence as a 7 year old child (similar to ravens, octopus, elephants, dolphins, chimps, etc). They're more intelligent than cats or dogs (which are about equivalent to the intelligence of a 5 year old child), but none of these higher order sentient creatures live happily in cages.

Looks like NYC is going to put some protections in place for birds because of what happened to Flaco.

my favorite period of weather was from December 2009 through April 2018. So many amazing weather events in this period-- even when it didn't snow!

really? it feels warm today lol

and we have much shorter heatwaves now, we have not had a full week 7 days of 90 degree days since 1999 or 2002.

Has JFK stayed the same or also increased. And that's because of high pressure building further north? I was wondering if there's a way for us to extrapolate what the NYC number of 90 degree days "should be" based on EWR. I think EWR averaged 10 more 90 degree days than NYC back when the equipment was properly sited in Central Park? So I guess we can say that the records from 1991 and 1993 of 39 degree days should have been exceeded in 2010 and at least tied in 2022?

Yes-- and I noticed something else-- the decoupling between EWR and NYC.... 2022 was #2 at EWR tied with 1993 which was NYC's hottest summer on record in terms of 90 degree days (tied with 1991) same with EWR at that point..... but 2022 is not to be found in the top 10 list for NYC, that shows that something is wrong with the siting of NYC's ASOS. 2021 which is tied with 1991 at EWR isn't to be found in NYC's top 10 list either. It's interesting that 2016 was tied with 1983 at EWR, both were super el ninos with big snowstorms and 1983 used to be the summer with the most 90 degree days prior to the 90s (and at JFK prior to 2010), but 2016 wasn't that high on the list for 90 degree days at either NYC or JFK was it? What was that year when JFK doubled the 70 degree dew point days record-- 2016? I remember they had like 42 of them, beating 1983's record of 21? Too bad they didn't have nearly as many 90 degree days in 2016 as they had in 1983!

50s and rain? thats not warm, I'd call that....mild and rainy

average temperature is deceptive though because summer heat is defined by number of hot days (90 degrees or higher). I dont think the records from 2010 have been beaten in that department

But not with number of 90 degree days, right, it's simply been raining too much. In 2010 we had the most 90 degree days ever and in 2011 we had the highest temperatures we've recorded.

does this mean it's going to be sunny? can't be that warm and cloudy and raining lol

as long as it doesn't rain much, it's useless if it's cloudy all the time and raining

That "account" (and I use that term VERY loosely) is definitely sig worthy lol

Keep us posted

where is this warmth coming from by the way.... are we getting some sort of heat up here from the SW deserts? I noticed Dallas is going to be in the mid 90s on Wednesday.... is that where our heat is coming from?

we were lucky, we could have had it as bad as Boston.... then again we were just a few miles away from 2 feet of snow lol. I've never seen a boundary like that in such a big storm, literally dividing the city in half.

But the summers right after 09-10 were much hotter than anything we've seen recently, our summers have gotten cooler and rainier and more humid.

but those westerly heat bursts are really good because they give us lower humidity, therefore less allergies (at least for me-- 2010 had an amazing summer). we had consistently hotter summers in the 50s, 90s and the early part of the 10s than what we do now (I go by number of 90 degree days). somehow during the 50s we had both hotter summers and TCs coming up the coast frequently.

I remember that-- I wondered how we had a raging blizzard on southerly winds that night....how does that happen lol JFK had 10" of snow after 1" of rain, which has never happened before. The sides of our houses were caked in snow the next morning. Why did it take us so long to changeover to snow?

we had three notable storms here this year one in January that gave us 2 inches two in February, 4 inches from the first one and 6 inches from the second one.