[michigan83]

This is purely anecdotal, but does anyone else feel like our state's climate is changing just a tad?

Last summer seemed very cool to me. Last winter, COLD!! This spring so far... a serious lack of warmth and humidity. It seems like late May and early June always used to bring a few very warm days mixed in with the rest. Just not seeing it this year.

Interestingly, I read that May's temps were actually .02 degrees warmer than average, but the local meteorologist explained that it was mostly due to the LOW temps being warmer than average (clouds maybe?), not warm daytime highs.

For the record, I love this state and love the weather most of the time. But I don't think I could deal with the climate getting colder.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? Again... no science behind this. Just 26 years of "Michigan experience"!!

[Coldjensens]

I lived in MIchigan from 1963 through 1988. I lived in Califronia until 2005 and then returned to Michigan. It is defintely a lot warmer now than it was when I was a kid. The snow used to stay ont eh ground and accumulate pretty much all winter. We always had lots of days below zero and the cold started in November. Now we have warm days on and off all winter. The swno does nto stick around much more than a week or two at a time. And we were still swimming on Thanksgiving.

Compared to the previous three winters this winter was colder, but compared to twenty years ago - much warmer.

[Peter B]

Sunspot activity is the lowest it's been in almost 30 years. Less radiation making it to Earth may have something to do with the cooler temperatures we've experienced in recent years.

Mad Science - Let me check my notes...: Not a Maunder Minimum ?

[Cliffie]

Originally Posted by michigan83

This is purely anecdotal, but does anyone else feel like our state's climate is changing just a tad?

Last summer seemed very cool to me. Last winter, COLD!! This spring so far... a serious lack of warmth and humidity. It seems like late May and early June always used to bring a few very warm days mixed in with the rest. Just not seeing it this year.

Interestingly, I read that May's temps were actually .02 degrees warmer than average, but the local meteorologist explained that it was mostly due to the LOW temps being warmer than average (clouds maybe?), not warm daytime highs.

For the record, I love this state and love the weather most of the time. But I don't think I could deal with the climate getting colder.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? Again... no science behind this. Just 26 years of "Michigan experience"!!

Overall I would say the weather has been more extreme, period. Last summer was brutally hot and airless for MONTHS where I live. I've never felt the need for a/c before but this year I really thought about installing it. And the winter we're just leaving behind -- ye gods, it was horrible. Remember everyone bemoaning their heat bills? back in January?

Now, my 83-year-old mom says this is getting more "back to normal," what she was always used to growing up. No thank you!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Average global temperatures peaked in 1998 then fell until about 2001, then rose slightly with a minor peak in 2003 and have been falling ever since. Any place that does not have some other factor (for example, a warm current) may indeed be experiencing a cooler climate than during the 1990s. Much of the West Coast is cooler now than a few years ago. Especially the Pac NW. Ditto the mention in an earlier post regarding the sleeping Sun. Another year of this and we'll been repeating the Dalton Minimum. Hopefully it's not another Maunder Minimum. A world with over 6 billion people on it is not ready for something like that.

[Peter B]

I would pray to Jesus ad nauseum for a Maunder Minimum. That would be heavenly

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Average global temperatures peaked in 1998 then fell until about 2001, then rose slightly with a minor peak in 2003 and have been falling ever since. Any place that does not have some other factor (for example, a warm current) may indeed be experiencing a cooler climate than during the 1990s. Much of the West Coast is cooler now than a few years ago. Especially the Pac NW. Ditto the mention in an earlier post regarding the sleeping Sun. Another year of this and we'll been repeating the Dalton Minimum. Hopefully it's not another Maunder Minimum. A world with over 6 billion people on it is not ready for something like that.

[xlabel]

I lived here from 99-02, left, and have been back for two winters and IMO the winters are far more brutal now than back then. I can remember a handful of times being scared going to work in between 99-02, it seemed like everyday was a edge of the seat, white-knuckle ride the last 2 winters.

[MittenDweller82]

Most climatoligsts believe that regardless of global warming (if you believe in it) that the average temperature will continue to drop. As one mentioned, sun spots regulate our weather significantly, but one of the main culprits is our ocean currents are changing due to polar ice melt. Earth has a natural "imbalance" as it spins on its axis, or "ellipse" which takes 20,000 years to complete. We are nearing that point again, and the last time it was at the end of its imbalance was...correct the ice age. Some scientists think we will eventually go into another ice again, not in our lifetime though.

[mackinac81]

Originally posted by Michigan83
This is purely anecdotal, but does anyone else feel like our state's climate is changing just a tad?

Last summer seemed very cool to me. Last winter, COLD!! This spring so far... a serious lack of warmth and humidity. It seems like late May and early June always used to bring a few very warm days mixed in with the rest. Just not seeing it this year.

Interestingly, I read that May's temps were actually .02 degrees warmer than average, but the local meteorologist explained that it was mostly due to the LOW temps being warmer than average (clouds maybe?), not warm daytime highs.

For the record, I love this state and love the weather most of the time. But I don't think I could deal with the climate getting colder.

Anyone else have thoughts on this? Again... no science behind this. Just 26 years of "Michigan experience"!!

I was just thinking this the other day, it DOES seem cooler. But I love it. I don't like hot humid days. And to think I"m moving to North Carolina...

[MICoastieMom]

Global warming and all aside, seasonal changes do go in a cycle. I have lived a good portion of my life in Micihgan. When I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, I found it quite hard to fathom the summers being so hot that families would drag their mattresses out into the islands running down the middle of Grand Blvd because it was too hot to sleep inside. Yet those were the stories my parents, who had witnessed it, told me. When those unbearably hot summers reappeared starting in '88, I longed for the good old day of my youth. I think we are starting to see the pendulum swing back the other way towards cooler summers.