weatherpruf

It wasn't followed by anything....that was all she wrote for the winter.

Even in ME my BIL says the 14 inches they had is gone.

Yeah I was seeing some insects too. Doesn't take much warmth to get them active.

So I went outside to take a look. The parsley seems fine and is not damaged at all. The sage is damaged but alive, as is the rosemary and the oregano looks good too. All but the parsely are in a planter ( and old charcoal grill that was converted ) and are elevated off the ground, so maybe that's a factor. But I also saw sprouting tomato seedlings and numerous new growth in weeds. That would be after the Nov cold snap. Maybe it's just my memory, but it seemed when I was a kid (70's ) the ground froze and stayed pretty much too cold for any December growth. I'm not well versed in herbs, so my ID's could be off. I'm more familiar with growing nightshade crops. I do know that crops in the cole family can take this kind of cold and shrug it right off; many people have decorative kale around all winter. I personally think it looks ugly, but that's me. Didn't see any flakes here today. Next time.

No problem. Thing is I didn't even plant this parsely, It seeded itself. it's all over the place.

Yes but in my region it hasn't worked out. It takes a long time to accumulate. In fact the last storm of March was the only one that delivered a serious amount. We did have a small April 1st event that was nice too. Overall though, I am too close to the city and the bay for big numbers in March. Sometimes the first few days of the month have been cold, like in 2015. We do best around here in mid-Jan-mid Feb. A few miles west or east makes a big difference, and 50 miles is huge.

It wasn't that hard down my way; the greenery is parsely. The sage finally gave out.

Overall the winters are warmer and shorter than they were years ago. I still have greenery in parts of my garden; there has been no lasting hard frost, and I have earthworms coming out in rainstorms. While there has been a little more snow if you average it out, in no way could we call the last few winters overly long. Now, cool wet Aprils that can feel like winter is hanging on, if that is what you mean, I grant you that.

Wasn't 2012. Maybe up your way, but we didn't see much snow here until the Feb storm, discounting the 3-4 we had in early Nov that year.

There should be some lighter events though. Snowless Decembers correlate with poor snow amounts for the rest of the winter. When it does nothing in Dec, I take a dim view of the rest of the winter. We've had a few exceptions in recent years, so I don't write it off, but it generally isn't a good sign if you like snow.

Jan 2016 in my neck of NJ was as big as Boxing Day, but not as windy IIRC. March was mostly a bust for us except for the very last storm, where we got somewhere in the realm of 8-10 after it snowed a total of 3-4 all day. March has never really delivered the goods in my neck of the woods. People really got emotional with me arguing this point last year but in the end I was right, backed up by Mitchel Volk himself.

This. My backyard is a pond. There are mallards in my neighbor's yard. And the dog rolls around in the mud and tracks it into the house.

Would you believe that back in 83 my car broke down and the mechanic told me the gas lines had frozen? Didn't think that was possible, I was a 22 year old kid so i bought it. I remember limping in the cold from a warehouse where I was a guard ( keeping watch over cabbage patch dolls, remember them? ) to some stranger's house and they took me right in so I could use the phone ( no cellphones! ) to call my dad. It was dangerously cold. This winter I dunno, warm Decembers like this, and a Nov snow, i'm not betting on a lot of snow. BUt the weather is freakish these days so nothing surprises me anymore. Just don't give me predictions of two feet of snow and I get 3-6 anymore. By my count we have had 4 or 5 of them in the past few years. Only one, Jan 2016 actually delivered, and that was basically all she wrote for that winter.....

Just saw a diagram on another non weather site that showed a probable El Nino and warmer than average temps for most of the northern tier of the country. It sure didn't look at all like a snowy pattern, I think it was the Climate Prediction Center? Beneath it was two meteorologists calling for an El Nino and....a snowy pattern for the NYC region. Ok, then.

There is no other kind of drive to FL, hombre....anytime I have to go their it's miserable. Can't stand the place. Get sick from something every time I am forced to spend time there.

Even the fish don't hang around in the cold water Unc, ya gotta go further and further as we get into Dec. The great winter fisheries we had locally 40 years ago for whiting and mackerel and cod are long past.

A lot of people don't anymore, at least not electric ones. I brought one home last year and no one else, even the adults ( from another country ) could operate it. We'd had hand ones for 25 years here, but I grew up with electric ones. My son the millenial ( if he is a millenial ) is the only one who uses it with ease, ironically.

Both were meh here, other than the timing. 3-5 deals, but in the 80's any measurable snow was welcome. Something about my area, we often miss the big totals. Not always, but often.

I am sure we were in the 70's in 2015; I had a tomato seedling sprout between patio pavers ( damn squirrels drop the seeds everywhere ) but I am SW of Manhattan, across from SI.

What about 89 and 2102? 89 was all she wrote ( or was it 88? ) and 2012-13 didn't get rolling til we got the Feb storm, which we looked to get fringed on but managed 6 ( another one where you needed to be east, so Manhattan got 11 and a few miles west less, just like last Jan. ) and then we had a piddly March event of 5 or so that was down to about 2.5 by day's end...

Actually in the real world most millenials are more like you, and yes they eat canned tuna. My son is the last year of the millenials, 1997, and he opened two cans this week, the costco ones that actually have enough for a sandwich. I told him lay off the tuna, mercury and all. Once in awhile, that's it.

Cold and dry are great hiking conditions. Love to take a walk in the woods and not get mud all over. Gotta try to enjoy the weather we have. It's also great weather for fishing, salt or fresh. I don't hunt, but I'm told it's good for that too. Of course I enjoy the big snows as well.

Hope this isn't setting up to be another 09-10 type winter. That was a bit of a bummer for my area ( though we still had a few nice storms, nothing huge though)

You never really know anymore what will happen, there can be years like 2016 and 2006 which were duds except for two big daddy's, or years when everyone swears it will be great and not much happens. Or like 2015, nothing happening until well into Jan. 2015 was strange in that we racked up a lot of inches after Jan with mostly smaller events, the biggest coming in early March, with a cold powdery storm to boot. I never pay much attention to long term patterns but when PB or Forky write something, I pay attention

Indeed, for big storms yes. Not sure if 96 was in that camp. But I prefer years like 94 or 2014 with lots of smaller but decent events. Those two footers are hard to deal with for me. Not that I don't enjoy the hell out of them.....95-96 was a rare year with both lots of smaller events and one huge one, 2010-11 would have been but winter was over mid-Feb.