Apple blossoms bloom
On too-warm winter days, then
Frost, dead. No apples.

Yesterday was the first day of spring, so it’s a good time to look back on the winter we just had. For most of the United States, it was really crazy. It started off with balmy, record-breaking temperatures in December and January, then turned bitter cold in February and March with some memorable and deadly snow storms.

Unseasonably warm weather followed by bitter cold is not good for the flora. Trees and flowers can be fooled into thinking spring has sprung and start to bloom. Then when the cold weather hits, the blossoms are killed. When fruit tree blossoms are killed by frost, there’s no fruit at the end the growing season.

The cold weather in the U.S. in February and March prompted some to deny that global warming exists. Nonsense of course – one season does not a climate trend make, and one cold location does not a global trend make.

America’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just completed their analysis of the winter season. Globally, average land-surface temperatures between December 2006 and February 2007 were the warmest on record.

And the beat goes on.