So It's February 28th and something out of the normal has already occurred in the Mid Ohio Valley. Just take a look below and you'll see what I am talking about.
Yes that's a tree already beginning to bud... in what should still be winter. Even more alarming is if you look below at how much of the country is ahead of schedule this year so far.
It's February... that's right February. There is no reason that trees all the way up to Pennsylvania should be budding all ready. Zooming in on the Mid Ohio Valley, we can see that we are about 24 days ahead of schedule (yes that is right almost a month). And this is not the first year that this has happened; lets take a look back at what happened last year on the same date and then take a look at where the last 30 year average is.
Now, given these two years of course this isn't enough to say things are a trend but this still should be alarming to see. Especially when you see how last year turned out by the time Spring rolled around.
The fact of the matter is, the Earth is warming (at an alarming rate too) so don't be too surprised if trees bud here in the Mid Ohio Valley in February to early March every year if things keep going the way they are (by the way, this should be happening in late March to early April for our region).
Make sure to leave a comment below, and thanks for reading!
Source of Maps and Data USGS and USA National Phenology Network