BU Biologist Says Coldest Start To The Year On Record Isn’t A Late Spring

The northeast US is having its coldest start to the year on record, and a genius BU professor says that spring isn’t late.

This is a busy time of year for Richard B. Primack, a biologist at Boston University. He and his colleagues survey the plants growing around Concord, Mass., recording the first day they send up flowers and leaves.

Compared to the last five springs, things are pretty slow right now around Concord, in large part because of the relatively cold winter and chilly March.

But Dr. Primack wouldn’t call this a late spring. “It’s just much later compared to our recent memories of spring,” he said.

Springing Forward, and Its Consequences – NYTimes.com

So the latest spring on record isn’t actually late.

Screenshot at Apr 23 23-41-34

The good doctor must have missed January, 1790 in Philadelphia – when it was 70 degrees.

Screenshot at Apr 23 23-47-18

A Meteorological Account of the Weather in Philadelphia: From January 1 … – Charles Peirce – Google Books

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34 Responses to BU Biologist Says Coldest Start To The Year On Record Isn’t A Late Spring

  1. philjourdan says:

    All I know is that my bulbs bloomed a month later, and my azaleas have yet to bloom. of course my memory only goes back 50 odd years.

  2. Andy DC says:

    Forythia this year bloomed in mid April, where as a kid 50+ years ago, they frequently bloomed in mid March.

    • Gail Combs says:

      Ours in mid NC also bloomed mid April when mid Ferbuary is not unusual….
      The narcissus are just now starting to bloom.

  3. Streetcred says:

    Or, “… wouldn’t call this a hot summer. It’s just a bit warmer compared to our recent memories of summer.”

  4. Robertv says:

    “But a hot sun” Why talk about a hot sun? Shouldn’t the sun always have the same strength at the same time of the year? They tell us the sun is a constant in climate modeling.

  5. Andy Oz says:

    Even Alaska, which we all know has been boiling hot all winter, is having an unprecedented late spring. Nenana tripod is still up, won’t make the record, but is almost 3 weeks past earlier break ups. Alarmist morons lose again. LMAO.
    http://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com/

  6. Mike D says:

    Do you remember watching Star Wars, when Obiwan Kenobi does the Jedi mind trick the first time? I remember thinking, no way that could ever work in real life.

    Fast forward a few decades, and I see it really does work on a huge percentage of the populace. Someone says something and they believe it just because it was said.

    • tom0mason says:

      Back when Obiwan Kenobi did his mind trick, CAGW idiots had there Yamal majikrod trick that put the ice-sports back into climate temperatures.

      Now that we are wiser the Yamal twig trick doesn’t work any more.
      🙂

    • Peter Yates says:

      ___”..believe it just because it was said.”___
      That reminds me about what we were telling the young people who thought the world was going to end in December 2012. (History repeats!) :-
      “Because we know all of these things, we have no reason to believe what any trolls or doom-merchants try to suggest. We can definitely reject their crazy claims with science, statistics, and common sense. In fact, we know there is absolutely zero scientific evidence to backup any of their idiotic, worthless claims. So it isn’t surprising that in four or more years they haven’t changed that fact. The take-home-lesson is: ***Just saying it doesn’t make it true***, especially if the doomsayer is likely to make a profit out of the doom saying.”

      • Peter Yates says:

        In other words, if we aren’t **skeptical** we could fall for any number of scams and hoaxes — such as the doomsday that was supposed to happen in December 2012.

        Most people need some proof, or evidence, that backs up these wild claims. Otherwise, I could say something like: “I’ve found a new species of apple tree that has the apples falling upwards!” and everybody would believe me without question.”

        • tom0mason says:

          So true Peter,
          The opposite of skeptical is gullible!
          An unskeptical scientist is NOT A SCIENTIST!

          Being Skeptical is a good thing! I find it remarkable that the term ‘skeptic’ is often used in a derogatory epithet.
          Just checking with Thesaurus! (Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.)

          Synonyms for unskeptical, which the dictionary defines as an adjective meaning naive, trusting:

          foolish, unsophisticated, unsuspecting, wide-eyed, being a sucker, believing, credulous, easily taken in, easy mark, falling hook line and sinker, green, innocent, kidding oneself, mark, silly, simple, sucker, susceptible, swallowing whole, taken in, taking the bait,

          Synonyms for skeptical

          astute, discerning, knowledgeable, perceptive, suspicious, unbelieving, untrusting, wise

          http://thesaurus.com/browse/unskeptical

          Being a scientist, or just thinking scientifically requires a large measure of skepticism.

      • Gail Combs says:

        ***Just saying it doesn’t make it true***

        AHHhh, but that type of logic does not work on those fed Hegalian/Marxist philosophy where BELIEVING does make it true.

        The Philosophy Of Karl Marx

        As a student, Marx accepted the philosophy of Hegel as the only sound and adequate explanation of the universe. According to this philosophy, “the only immutable thing is the abstraction of movement.” The one universal phenomenon is change, and the only universal form of this phenomenon is its complete abstraction. Thus, Hegel accepted as real only that which existed in the mind. Objective phenomena and events were of no consequence; only the conceptions of them possessed by human minds were real. Ideas, not objects, were the stuff of which the universe was made. The universe and all events therein existed and took place only in the mind, and any change was a change in ideas.….

        In other words in the mid 1800s “the Young Hegelians” were debating how many Angels could dance on the head of a pin. It was Karl Marx who took this kooky idea, that reality did not exist, and insisted ” that theology must yield to the superior wisdom of philosophy” and later “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways – the point however is to change it”

        It is interesting to note that it was a wealthy banker and industrialist, Marx’s uncle Benjamin Philips, who bankrolled Marx and Engel.

        From WIKI

        This Kooky Idea, now manifesting as “Political Correctness” and CAGW was rolled up and tied with a bow by Willi Muenzenberg. The KGB then inserted it into US education, news media and entertainment (Hollywood) as part of their Active Measure operations

        page 98 Willing Accomplices by Kent Clizbe

        …While most Active Measure operations require human agents to initiate and run, once the operation is moving, it becomes a virtual perpetual motion intelligence machine.

        The most striking example of the perpetual effects of an Active Measure operation is PC today. PC is a direct result of the communist covert influence operations, which planted their payloads in American academia, education, media, and Hollywood. PC’s accepted anti-American dogma is nearly directly quoted from the messages implanted by Willi Muenzenberg,….

        A former chief of Active Measures in KGB headquarters, an experienced case officer who had been the KGB’s COS in Vienna in 1961, in his unpublished memoirs said,

        [Active Measures] did get an early start in Soviet Russia. Lenin’s longtime revolutionaries who took power in November 1917 were so imbued with clandestine tricks that it was second nature to transmute them into government policy.

        The KGB Active Measures specialist, who rose to the rank of general in 1967, said that the goal of KGB Active Measures since 1923 was, “upsetting the counterrevolutionary plans and activities of the opposition.”

        As the Soviet Union evolved into Stalin’s dictatorship, the KGB received orders to step up Active Measures. One goal was “weakening or misleading…our adversaries.”….

        Muenzenberg was A Master of Propaganda Who Grew Rich on Soviet Lies He died via a Soviet garrote wire.

  7. Andy Oz says:

    There are weak minded people out there who believe in Jedi mind powers.
    http://youtu.be/AlEEEXMf8gA

  8. Yep, it’s colder than usual in my neighborhood. Must mean the whole world is just as cold!

    • gator69 says:

      Well that is how you guys determine when the world is getting hotter, by anecdote. Funny how you ignore the cold, which anyone worried about AGW should view as good news. Got agenda? 😆

    • tom0mason says:

      It’s colder than usual in my neighborhood, and thankfully I have a whole heap of coal to burn.

      UM,um feel the warmth!

    • Justa Joe says:

      Yep, it’s warmer than usual in my neighborhood. Must mean the whole world is just as warmer!

      Not very clever really. We’re treated to this crap everytime there’s a warm spell like on the east coast last summer or was that 2012? Also the post isn’t suggesting that our present cold temperatures means anything in particular. The post is pointing out the absurd lengths you people go to when it comes to AGW agitprop – Denying the obvious late spring, for example

      • Gail Combs says:

        It was not warmer last summer on the East Coast. Actually it was down right cool. No temps over 95°F all summer and only five over 90°F… This was the Sunny South???

        I count 43 day over 90°F for 2004 by July tenth vs 26 days for 2010 by July tenth and 1 day at 91°F in 2013.

        2012 was warm though.

        It is amusing to see that there are no days with 90°F, 92°F, 94°F, 97°F and 99°F for the years I checked: 2004, 2010 and 2012 just like the record for 2013 when I looked at it last fall.

        But now the 2013 record has data 90°F and 92°F where they inserted ten days of 90°F and above into the record.

        As a Lab manager of a Quality lab for decades I learned the tricks for spotting ‘Flinching’ and other telltales of data fraud. One method for catching fraud is to look at the last digit and determine the count. If the data set is large enough the numbers should be equal. Since this is high temperature you would expect either equal numbers or a tapering off with more numbers at 0,1,2 3 than at 7,8,9

        There were 105 days 90°F and above for the three years I looked at so that is enough data to see a trend. The data is in °F but looked funny so I also included °C.

        Temperature ———- COUNT
        (32.2 °C) 90 °F..——..6 ALL in 2013
        (32.8 °C) 91 °F..——..41
        (33.3 °C) 92 °F..——..4 ALL in 2013
        (33.9 °C) 93 °F..—–..10
        (34.4 °C) 94 °F..——..0
        (35.0 °C) 95 °F..—–..17
        (35.55 °C) 96 °F..—..10
        (36.1 °C) 97 °F..——..0
        (36.67 °C) 98 °F..—..16
        (37.2 °C) 99 °F..-..0
        (37.77 °C) 100.°F-..1

        Now that distribution is weirder than snake shoes since rounding in °C and then switching from °C to °F does account for the problem, well sort of. But does not account for the mysterious ten 2013 data points.
        32°C ===> 90 °F
        (SO why no 90 °F? there should be a lot of 90 °F in the summer in the south especially with almost half the data points at 91 °F.)
        33°C ===> 91 °F
        34°C ===> 93 °F
        35°C ===> 95 °F
        36°C ===> 97 °F
        (So why all the 96 °F and 98 °F yet no 97 °F?)
        37°C ===> 98 °F

        ALL the data for 90 °F and 92 °F is in 2013 and it just so happens to add up to the extra 10 above 90 °F that wasn’t in the same data set last year.

  9. gator69 says:

    I hope his students read this so that when they show up for class late, they can explain that they are not tardy, just late compared to memory.

    I would call my Spring late, compared to memory and to reality.

  10. De Paus says:

    It is not surprising that spring used to come later 160 years ago, That was at the end of the Little Ice Age. Spring has come earlier over the following years, in a time there was hardly any CO2 being produced by humans. So without CO2 levels rising, spring came earlier. But now CO2 levels are much higher and rising, spring comes later. So there is no correlation, and certainly no causation between higher CO2 levels and the arrival of spring. Yet someone who is a doctor claimes differently.

  11. Andy Oz says:

    Harvard paper confirms changes in cherry blossom opening due to UHI.
    http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1893.pdf

  12. Gail Combs says:

    GEE, forty years ago Botany was the only non-Marxist department a friend of mine could find. I guess that department finally surrendered. I wonder if they now teach Lysenkoism?

  13. James Strom says:

    I like plants as an indicator of climate. They seem to act as a summary of recent stretches of weather, and in some cases a summary of quite long periods of weather. In many cases a healthy plant is worth much more than a single data point. So I have a question. I have long been amused by the fact that South Carolina styles itself as “the Palmetto State”, when in fact I almost never see palmettos in SC, except on state property, where they look suspiciously like new plantings that were shipped in to replace the palmettos killed in the previous winter. Was the Palmetto State so named because of the abundance of palmettos in an earlier period, say the nineteenth century? An earlier, warmer period, I should add.

    • An Inquirer says:

      There are drawbacks to using plants as an indicator climate. First, higher levels of CO2 in the air enable plants to be heartier and survive through more harsh conditions. Second, UHI enables plants to survive now where they could not 100 years ago.

  14. Shazaam says:

    A neighbor planting a tree discovered the soil was still frozen 10 inches below the surface here on the north coast (near Lake Erie).

    The trees here are just starting to bud. And it seems that so-called biologist apparently isn’t aware that cold soil temperatures delay plants spring-time emergence from dormancy. Odd that plant nurseries all seem to know and use that little fact. They refrigerate their dormant stock to keep it dormant until shipped.

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