Summer in March

The March of Summer

            Shorts, sun block, bathing suits, ice cream, Frisbees flying, and temperatures reaching the 80s.  Are the seasons confused?  After a winter that was much more like fall, spring is starting out like summer. 

Just three weeks removed from a snowstorm that gave UNH students their first snow day of the 2011-2012 school year, New Hampshire got an early taste of summer weather last week. Temperatures reached highs in the 70s and even in the 80s throughout most of the week, in an unusual burst of hot weather more reminiscent of mid-July than March.  UNH students took full advantage of the oddly warm weather, many donning summer clothes and taking to the outdoors.

            “I spent the gorgeous afternoon playing Frisbee with friends,” said UNH sophomore Jason Graham on Wednesday afternoon.

            “I took a walk in the woods, went fishing, and just enjoyed the outdoors,” said Jasmin Cesko, another sophomore.

            Students were not the only ones enjoying the change in weather.  The Dairy Bar, Durham’s popular ice cream restaurant, saw a sizable boost in business as customers flooded in for some cool treats.  Jane Calef, the supervisor at the Dairy Bar, said that she has never seen so much business this early in the year.

        “It’s been crazy,” Calef said, “Our numbers have almost doubled.  Usually it’s only like this if something’s going on at the [Whittemore Center].” 

            The unexpected heat affected student athletes as well.  In particular, the women’s cross-country team had to make changes to their normal practice routine to compensate for the high temperatures.

            “We had to go for a run in the woods today,” said sophomore Anne Twombly, a runner on the cross-country team, on Wednesday “It was too hot to run out on the pavement.”

            Although many students took joy from the unseasonable warmth, some couldn’t help feeling somewhat concerned with the strange weather.  UNH student David De La Rosa said that he believes the heat is a result of a long-term trend toward climate change, and that he is concerned about the weather to come.

            “I’m excited for hurricane season,” De La Rosa sneered, “The hurricanes are going to be crazy this year.  I think it’s all because of climate change.”

            Meteorologist Josh Judge of the New Hampshire news station WMUR was also surprised by the consistent hot weather that characterized last week.

            “I have never seen anything like it,” Judge said, “there is no precedent for it. We set six records [for temperature highs] on six days in a row, right back to back.” 

Judge said that although last week’s temperatures were highly unusual for March, a larger trend toward higher temperatures over several years would be necessary to prove that climate change was the cause.

“It is way to early to tell if it’s indicative of anything,” Judge said,  “Many of the records broken were set 50 to 100 years ago.  If it were to happen one or two more years in a row, then there would be a cause for concern.”

Judge also pointed out that the weather phenomenon known as La Niña was in effect during the past winter, and that that may have been the cause for the unseasonable weather. 

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, “During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the Southeast and cooler than normal in the Northwest.”  La Niña would indeed be a fitting explanation for the warm weather that has characterized both the winter and the early spring.

Mary Stampone, a New Hampshire State Climatologist, said that while she agrees that it is too early to determine if the weather is a result of climate change, it is indicative of a trend regionally.

“Weather patterns like these are short term responses to wider atmospheric circulation patterns,” Stampone said,  “You cannot directly relate the magnitude of one particular weather event to a long-term, global-scale pattern like climate change or the one specific part of climate change we refer to as global warming.  However, data indicates that over time, average March temperature has risen, and we have observed more extremes in weather patterns from year to year.  Therefore, this type of weather pattern is consistent with what many scientists have interpreted as the influence of regional climate changes on regional weather patterns.”

Whether climate change, La Niña, or pure luck was the cause of last week’s warm weather, UNH students shouldn’t plan too many trips to the beach just yet.  Forecasts call for a return of temperatures in the mid-40s and rain for the week to come.