Jan 10, 2007 6:54 pm US/Eastern
First Flakes Of Snow Finally Fall In NYC
High Of 36 Degrees Is Coldest Since December 8
The Wacky Weather Has Made 2007 Already Memorable. Click here To View The 2006 Newsmakers Remembered Slideshow.
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
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It's hard to see, and maybe harder to believe, but the first snowfall of the season, albeit just a trace amount, fell on Manhattan.
CBS
Those white flakes falling from the sky across Manhattan this morning weren't an illusion. It took three weeks into the start of winter, but snow finally trickled out from the clouds and onto the ground for about 15-20 minutes during the 10 o'clock hour. It didn't stick around nor to the ground for long, but it may have spurned the fears of global warming that came with
Saturday's record warm weather."I think it's time we get some snow, a little snow will break the weather, change the pace," one New Yorker told CBS 2.
Sunshine, 72-degree temperatures, a Central Park jog in shorts and a tee shirt -- it conjures up those distant memories of summer -- or maybe just memories of Saturday. A few days after setting the all-time mark for the highest temperature in January, New York etched its way into the record books once again. January 10, 2007 has set the new standard for the latest we have gone in the winter season without seeing our first snowflakes, besting the previous record by almost a week. To find the previous high watermark (or actually low snow mark) you would have to go back to the Rutherford B. Hayes administration, January 4, 1878.
The brief winter wonderland spread throughout New Jersey and even into Philadelphia, where a heavy flurry caused near-whiteout conditions shortly before 11.
Wednesday's official high of 36 degrees was the coldest day in the city since December 8.
Talks of snow seemed laughable just several days ago, when thousands of people crowded Central Park on Saturday to enjoy the unusually warm temperatures that CBS 2's Meterologist John Bolaris says were mostly be attributed to El Nino, a weather phenomenon that occurs every several years and usually creates milder winter for the northeast. El Nino occurs when waters off the Peruvian coast continue to warm late in the year.
The phenomenon was first mentioned over 110 years ago by Peruvian fishermen who were perplexed by the strange weather, but even more baffled by a surplus of dead fish in the water. It was actually the warming of the water that killed the fish, and when the ocean warms like that, it has a global effect. "Normally, the stronger the El Nino, the more mild winter and less in the way of snow for the northern tier, northeast and mid-Atlantic. However in an El Nino year you can still have a superstorm either with snow or rain," Bolaris says.
El Nino, Spanish for "the child," was said to have received its name from the Peruvian fishermen because it occurs around Christmas time. The phenomenon typically lasts for several weeks, but can continue for months at a time. When that happens, the fishing industry can suffer serious damage, similar to what the fishermen experienced many moons ago.
It's unclear whether this winter could be the least snowy in history -- there were just 2.8 inches recorded in 1972-73. "It's not out of the question that we're going to get more later," National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Ciemnecki said.
The morning flakes didn't stick around long, nor will this first Arctic blast in more than a month. By this weekend, the mercury is expected to head back into the 50s. But snow lovers have some hope to cling to. Temperatures are expected to plummet next week. Will there be any more snow to follow? Only time will tell.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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