This post is the answer for A Rose for the Planet - a new Local Guides campaign. initiated by @ErmesT .
Not long ago I have written about the winter in Belarus. You could see snow caps on trees in my post, snowy forest, and frozen windows, making a snowman and sledding. I described with full confidence the cold temperatures, I wrote: «Usually winter is not very cold, usual temperatures are from 0°C to - 10°C, but the frost -30-40°C is also possible, children usually have additional vacations in such weather. But when the weather is above zero (it’s not rare), all this snow is melting turning into durty porrige underfoot».
And I was sure that it’s so. It was as obvious as the fact that white is white and black is black. The winter should be cold in Belarus.
Now I’m not so sure.
Look please at these photos:
All these photos are taken in the period 11.01.2020-02.02.2020. Can you tell for sure that you see namely winter photos?
More photos you can see by the link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/eJD5Hkh5EjAMTYt86. (be sure to look at the links in comments - they are in Russian, but you can easily translate the text).
Snowdrops and green grass in January-February for Belarus is an incredible situation. This cannot be, because it can never be. And this is not about a few days. Sleds, skis are unused since the beginning of winter. The single day when we could ride, we missed. Even in November, it is usually colder than this winter (with the exception of a few days that are suitable for November).
Of course I couldn’t catch all the signs. In internet you can find even the photos of butterflies, blooming daisies, rhododendrons and magnolias, can read about the bears and hedgehogs which can’t sleep; cockchafers woke up, wood grouse and deer started mating ahead of time.
January, 22 was with a thunderstorm, and February, 2 was with a rainbow.
Rapeseed is abundantly green on agricultural fields. The cultures woke up from hibernation. Usually such a picture can be observed no earlier than March. Experts call this situation extreme. Plants can die.
This year, for the first time in the history of meteorological observations, climatic winter did not come to Belarus till the end of January and the weather corresponded to the first or second decade of November. That is, the transition through zero did not happen.
You can say it’s impossible, it can never happen. But it seems we deal with our new reality. Climate has changed.
Addition (March,2020):
Now calendar winter is over and one can say that this winter is the only winter which has not come at all.
Climatic winter in Belarus is a period when the average daily temperature steadily drop below 0 degrees Celcium. Usually it begins in November-December and ends in February-beginning of March. This year it didn’t happen. February in Belarussian is called “Люты” what means “evil”, “harsh”, but this year Femruary resembled March if not April. It wasn’t evil month at all.
My indoor flowers spent the winter at the balcony and feel fine (it’s closed, but when the temperature outside is -30 degrees, temperature at my balcony may be -10 degrees). I wore my autumn shoes almost all winter (it would never had occured to me before). My son’s sleigh stood untouched during all winter. He didn’t had time to ride them at those single day when the snow was appropriate.
