A slow news week, right?
HA!
While some are taking to sical media to celebrate the victory of Joe Biden over Donald Trump, others lament the moment when the media told us what the electoral college was bound to do when they make their decision..
All of that aside, we are being spoiled by relatively moderate air. Not liberal, but certainly not conservative.
Who would have thought that by early November, the grass would still be growing (and green) and that the afternoon air would feel more like late summer than early winter.. As a matter of fact, I was one of those grass cutters today who dressed in shorts and a t-shirt to zap the growing grass, and millions of leaves, into oblivion. There is a slight forehead sunburn to prove the work was done.
It did feel weird, almost too good to be true. So many thought that either our luck would run out and we will be set for a ferocious and punishing winter, or that global warming set in and it will never be cold again!
Neither is true, though either could happen.
Yes, this weather feels unique and strange.
ARE WE ENTERING THE TWILIGHT ZONE?
It feels kind of like my favorite Twilight Zone episode, the Midnight Sun.. In that show, the earth was hurtling towards the sun and causing the planet to bake.. And then suddenly the planet shifted and began to quickly move away from the sun into the distant dark universe, causing our home and all of inhabitants to freeze..
While we are not facing such a treacherous event, it’s fair to note that a temperature near or above 80 for three days straight in November is a little out of the norm…
Or are they?
Over the years, we have covered some major weather events on Coal Speaker. Including weird cold waves in the summer and intense heat waves in the winter. After 11 years of this website, there seems to be nothing new under the sun.
But going back even further in history, there are records… There are reports.
So join me as we travel back in time 30 years (yes you read that right) to 1990…
HOT HUNTERS
The REPUBLICAN HERALD joined hunters in lamenting a hot hunting season. No fun catching deer in 70 and 80 degree weather, but that is what they faced the year. Karen Hube wrote on November 27, 1990 in the HERALD,
Meanwhile, all too warm, under fluorescent orange hats, hunting jackets and vests, many hunters Monday voiced disappointment with the unseasonable mild temperatures on the opening day of the two-week buck season. There was no fear of frostbite, no cold bite to the air, no invigorating chill or crunch of a frozen ground.
Earlier in November, it was 71 in Wilkes Barre on the 3rd. 72 in Pittsburgh.. near 80 in Philly.
By the 5th that year, the heat was making front page headlines across the area..
Record heat was being reported on in the REPUBLICAN.
Karen Hube wrote that there were no killing frosts.. no cold days or nights. People wore their summer best as the temp neared 80 for days.
The weather stayed warm for Thanksgiving that year, when Philadelphia neared 60 degrees for their 71st Thanksgiving Day Parade..
Later in the month, the heat continued.
I was in a wedding that year, at the age of 10. I distinctly recall my sister and her new husband, along with the wedding party, seemingly having a wedding in mid-summer instead of late autumn.. I even remember a moment when we drove through Ashland, beeping and cheering, when my father’s Cadillac horn decided to stop working. I recall adults sweating in the heat as they tried to fix it.
There was record warmth in the entire Eastern United States in November 90.
As a matter of fact, just after midnight on November 28, 1990, Buffalo New York hit 70 degrees, which broke a 94-year record at that tie..
Despite the November heat, the winter forecasters and experts predicted a “bleak winter” for the East.
Colder! Snow! Oil supplies would be in short supply.. The media. Oh.. They have always been fake.
The winter of 1990-91 went on to become the 5th warmest since 1877. Most forecasts in 1990 were wrong. They called for bone chilling cold. What happened was earth shattering warmth.
This from columnist Jack Brubaker on March 12, 1991:
