can the weather ever be normal?

what's with the weather?  it's all over the place.  i don't mean that weather is actually located everywhere, but that it doesn't seem to know what it is supposed to do based upon what day of the year it is.

the winter of 2007/2008 was a perfect example.  here in s.w. ohio it warmed up enough and stayed such long enough that some trees started to bud with leaves in february.  try reading that again.

february.

this year (2008) our fall was heavily skewed towards warmer-than-average temperatures and i don't mean by a few degrees, but by 10 to 15 degrees above average.  for days on end.  no.  for weeks on end.  we had no appreciable autumn this year.  one day the trees were covered in green leaves and the next they were brown and falling off the trees en mass.  needless to say this did not bode well for fall photography.  not one bit.

and here i sit.....just a day before the holiday of xmas.....and it's 53-degrees outside with rain falling.  53-degrees.  rain.  the average for this date is 36-degrees.  sounds like like fall, doesn't it?  oddly enough this warmer-than-average situation didn't exist the previous few days when it was much colder.  much colder than average.  and while i cannot speak about the long-term because i've only lived here for three years, i can say that our lack of snow is unusual.  we have had snow on at least two or three occasions by this time of the year during each of the past three years.  we have had nothing but flurries this year.

still....i'd rather be sitting here in 53-degree weather with rain falling from the heavens than be back in florida.