John Wheeler: Someone flipped the switch today

FARGO — The season has changed. It is winter now and it is likely to remain winter until spring, more or less. Here in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest, one of the elemental characteristics is the weather's tendency to switch from one mode to another as if being controlled by an electronic on/off switch.

Winter was off until today and now it has been turned on. For almost every day of the fall, our weather has been warmer than average. The summer months were nominally warmer than average.



Last winter, of course, was mostly much warmer than average. If our weather now is to go colder than average for three or four months, then the last seven or eight months would likely even out to near or even slightly warmer than average. If the winter does indeed become mostly a cold one, then the flip of the switch has been flipped today.

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