Saturday afternoon, the temperature rose into the 50’s, the sun shined brightly and it was genuinely warm – for the first week of January. Thousands toured the North End over the weekend without snow or ice or Arctic cold getting in the way of a good times.
The restaurants and bakeries, cafes and shoppes were packed with people. The sidewalks, too, were packed with people instead of being packed with snow as was the case this time last year.
The winter does not seem to be happening this year, so far. Mind you, we are not complaining. Rather, we are wondering when and if it is going to start.
We know the winter is ultimately going to hit us. We know it is going to snow. We know the frigid Arctic air is going to come down on us as it always tends to do during a New England winter.
We do not know when all of this is going to happen. We just know it is definitely going to happen.
Or is it?
Is global warming and climate change affecting our winter?
The scientists say it is.
But common sense tells us, indeed, it reminds us that winters come and winters go. Some are cruel and difficult with below zero blasts of air unfit for humankind and tons of snow while others are unusually warm, almost temperate if you will.
The real question is whether or not we can get away with a winter without sub-zero temps and snow?
The answer to that is no, we can’t get completely escape that harsh but constant reality.
So we watch and we wait and we hope that we are going to escape Old Man Winter’s heavy hand despite knowing this isn’t going to happen.
Such is life.
Enjoy the warmth and lack of winter while you can. Its hiding somewhere around the corner and preparing to jump on us.