A mild winter
We had a couple of nights in the teens early in the week, but temperatures rapidly climbed back into the upper 50°F's by the end of the week. It was downright balmy on a late afternoon excursion to nearby downtown Greenville (SC).
Of course, we may have hard freezes to come, but the warmer winter has encouraged the Prunus mume (Japanese apricot) and flowering quince to open flowers already, a good month in advance of when I'd expect them.
And normally in February, we sporadically start having the warm days like we had today.
But although it's unusually warm, I'm just as glad not to have the abnormally cold winters of the last two years, when we had much more snow and ice and cold weather than we normally see in the southern mountains and piedmont.
Of course, we may have hard freezes to come, but the warmer winter has encouraged the Prunus mume (Japanese apricot) and flowering quince to open flowers already, a good month in advance of when I'd expect them.
And normally in February, we sporadically start having the warm days like we had today.
But although it's unusually warm, I'm just as glad not to have the abnormally cold winters of the last two years, when we had much more snow and ice and cold weather than we normally see in the southern mountains and piedmont.
Yesterday here on the Front Range of the Rockies, it was 67F. Tomorrow we're supposed to have snow. Ah, the fake spring weather Colorado throws at us this time of year ;-)
ReplyDeleteHmm, I didn't realize that Colorado had spring-like weather, too, at the moment. It's up and down the Eastern U.S.
ReplyDeleteWe're normally pretty cool here in the Carolinas in January, with February bringing the spring teases.
More variability and extremes, I guess!
Lisa
I'm with you about enjoying these more temperate winter days. My Prunus mume and the quince have lots of buds but no blooms yet. I'm surprised you've got them already!
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