by Jane Briggs-Bunting

Weather reached a record-breaking 84 degrees in my area of Michigan, the Mitt State. This time of year, we are usually still wearing out mitt-ens. It was the hottest March day ever on record in the state, continuing a record blitz of early and mid-summer temps followed by a much milder than normal winter. The blue herons never left to fly south.

The stretch has been wonderful. The spring peeper frog started chirping a week ago. The mosquitoes are just hatching but the daffodils, crocus, even the forsythia, are already in full bloom. The robins are back and so are the red-winged blackbirds.

I had noticed two formations of Canada geese flying north in V formation the third week of February. I thought they might be the early warning system that spring just might get here earlier, a lot earlier. They were right.

I am just hoping the animal and flower forecasters are accurate. As a Great Lakes native, as much as I am enjoying this fine weather, part of me expects a final blast of winter snow or ice. Mother Nature can be mighty callous zapping things late in the season, and this is too darn early.

Yet, the weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are optimistic that higher than normal temperatures will persist.

Is this proof of Global warming or at the very least climate change? As ABC News  reported:

NOAA managers said they cannot say for certain if the rising heat index is connected to global climate change. ‘Extreme events like the ones that we’re seeing are consistent with the notion that the climate is changing towards warmer, and obviously when records are broken that’s an unprecedented event, but without a lot of research and study it’s impossible to connect any single event with climate change,’ said Ed O’Lenic, chief of the operations branch at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

I think the robins may know more.