Heat Wave

We're currently sitting in the middle of a nice mass of warm air. The temperature topped 50°F yesterday, and that qualifies as a heat wave. An unseasonably warm day in February, for us non-equatorial norther-hemisphere dwellers, feels exceedingly pleasant. Most of the snow has melted; the massive plowed mountains, the kind built up in parking lots, are now small car-sized piles. Grass is once again visible. It's trampled, yellowish grass, but grass nontheless. There's mud everywhere, and the sound of running water. Even the river has started to thaw a little near the middle. This morning, an opaque fog shrouded everything. It's like spring come several months early. 

All this is very well, but it's also slightly worrying. The number of unseasonably warm days has been increasing recently, as well as record high temperatures and more extreme weather- this past winter has been harsher and had come earlier. It's frustrating to see that a number of people don't realize what even small seasonal shifts mean. Human biological patterns may not be directly or noticeably affected, but many other species are. If one population collapses, it leads to others- its competitors, its predators or prey- undergoing other, often unfavourable changes. That's not too good for us either.