I knew that the current El Niño on top of the general warming trend were making for weird late-fall/early winter weather, but I was still surprised to read today that Minneapolis and its surroundings have very little snow on the ground or ice on the lakes. My brother takes his family there every Christmas to visit his in-laws and play in the snow, but it seems like that second part is not in the cards for this year.
Even more surprising is Buffalo, which hasn’t had any measurable snow yet this season, and in fact on Monday was 71F … way hotter than it was here in San Diego. Granted, coastal Southern California has been running a bit cold this fall, but we were beaten by Buffalo?! Buffalo is apparently expecting a tiny bit of snow this weekend, but then will heat up again next week, so no white Christmas there either. Is anyone getting a white Christmas this year?