Unseasonably warm temperatures have hit coastal California, southern Nevada, southeastern Colorado, and several Midwestern states as well as parts of the Northeast, according to new maps produced by the USA National Phenology Network, which is led by the United States Geological Survey agency.

As The Christian Science Monitor previously reported:įorget what Punxsutawney Phil's shadow showed – spring is making its way to large swathes of the country between two and three weeks ahead of schedule, according to a study from a federal agency. But years of data do indicate that human-caused climate change is having an increasing impact on US weather patterns, including an earlier arrival of spring. Of course, the sample size of a couple of months is too small a timeframe to say for sure that the lack of snowfall is a direct consequence of climate change, since weather has natural fluctuations from year to year. 'I think the door is open to additional unusual weather events as we go forward.' 'This is occurring against a backdrop of a changing climate,' WGN-TV meteorologist Tom Skilling told the Tribune. While January 1928 boasted a mere 0.2 inches of total snowfall and February 19 tied with this year’s mere traces of snow, the combined total of January and February in 2017 was far lower than the previous January-February record, 2.5 inches in 1931. The official total amount of snowfall in January and February was between 0.5 and 0.6 inches, with almost all of it occurring in January. 'I hope it happens more often,' local resident Patricia Orta told the Chicago Tribune. But even including the occasional flurries that were not included in the NWS account, the two months were still unseasonably lacking in snow, as high temperatures made for an early spring in many parts of the United States. at O'Hare International Airport, did not record small amounts of snow that fell after that time and melted. The snow measurement, taken every morning at 6 a.m. For the first time in 146 years of record-keeping, the National Weather Service documented no snow on the ground in the city during January and February combined. It's been a warm couple of months in Chicago.

(A preexisting app, Lāhainā Historic Trail, offers another chance to explore from afar.)Online archives can’t bring back Lahaina, of course. But they can help ensure its history survives as more than memory. Flook.The work should eventually appear in the extensive, free Papakilo Database from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. That includes the names of millworkers, whose diversity shaped the island’s identity: Native Hawaiian, Asian, European, and beyond.“If someone puts in their grandfather’s name, it will pull up any document that he’s referenced in,” says Ms. “If this fire had happened three years ago, we would’ve lost the information as well as the object.”Once finished, the digitized collection, spanning the 1820s through 1980s, will include missionary family letters, photos, and records from the sugar plantation era. But though their artifacts are gone, not all is lost.“The beauty is, COVID actually gave us time to digitize a large amount of our archives,” says Kimberly Flook, deputy executive director of the foundation.The pandemic “allowed us to take better care of our collections,” she adds. Those include the Na ‘Aikane o Maui Cultural Center that burned.Six museums run by the Lahaina Restoration Foundation also fell to the flames. As do donations and hope.Once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Lahaina has been home to culturally significant sites for Native Hawaiians. As stunned locals grieve, search and rescue continues. wildfire in more than a century has claimed at least 99 lives.

Wildfire tore through the historic West Maui town a week ago today.The deadliest U.S. In recent days, loss has led the news in Lahaina, Hawaii.

Chicago snow totals by day 2017