From the warmest December on record to the "Blizzard of 2016" and snow in April, the winter of 2015-2016 put itself in the record books across the northeastern United States.

The transition to a strong El Niño brought a much different weather pattern to the region compared to the winter of 2014-2015 which brought copious amounts of cold and snow.

The winter of 2015-2016 impacted the northeastern United States differently based on location, causing some locations to end with below-normal snowfall and above-normal snowfall in others.
Warmest December on record hinders lake-effect snow season

The AccuWeather winter forecast for the Northeast and Great Lakes highlighted a mild start to the winter season as El Niño strengthened in the equatorial Pacific. The milder pattern would also lead to a weak lake-effect snow season across the Great Lakes.

"We were certain that the winter cold would be less persistent and less frequent compared to last year," AccuWeather Long Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.

The mild start to the season failed to produce many days of air cold enough to produce significant bands of lake-effect snow prior to 2016.

"The mild pattern during November and December took over across the eastern United States and allowed very few lake-effect events to occur at the beginning of the season," Pastelok said.

While November ended as one of the warmest months on record for portions of the Northeast, December not only became the warmest month on record across the Northeast, but shattered the previous record.

Using satellite data on how water moves around Earth, NASA scientists have solved two mysteries about wobbles in the planet's rotation -- one new and one more than a century old. The research may help improve our knowledge of past and future climate.

Although a desktop globe always spins smoothly around the axis running through its north and south poles, a real planet wobbles. Earth's spin axis drifts slowly around the poles; the farthest away it has wobbled since observations began is 37 feet (12 meters). These wobbles don't affect our daily life, but they must be taken into account to get accurate results from GPS, Earth-observing satellites and observatories on the ground.

In a paper published today in Science Advances, Surendra Adhikari and Erik Ivins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, researched how the movement of water around the world contributes to Earth's rotational wobbles. Earlier studies have pinpointed many connections between processes on Earth's surface or interior and our planet's wandering ways. For example, Earth's mantle is still readjusting to the loss of ice on North America after the last ice age, and the reduced mass beneath that continent pulls the spin axis toward Canada at the rate of a few inches each year. But some motions are still puzzling.

After a mild winter where temperatures in Ontario more typical of April often appeared, a large arctic high-pressure area sent temperatures plummeting to values more typical of mid-winter on April 5.

As a result of unseasonable cold, new record low minimums were set in a number of localities across Southern and Northeastern Ontario. "We used up some of our spring-like weather too early, and now we're paying for it," Environment Canada Meteorologist Geoff Coulson said. Coulson added that cold temperatures can be blamed on a combination of a weakening El Niño and polar vortex coming down south.

"The vortex brought with it some colder air, not just for Ontario but also for Quebec, Atlantic Canada, and a good chunk of the midwestern US and northeastern US as well. And with this pattern being fairly stubborn at this point, this cold air is expected to linger at least through mid-month, giving us temperatures more like single digit highs anywhere between 2, 3 °C (35.6, 37.4 °F) when we'd normally be seeing daytime highs of around 10 °C (50 °F)."

The following is a summary of weather event information received by Environment Canada on April 5:

London Airport -12.0 °C (10.4 °F) breaks previous record -10.5 °C (13.1 °F) set in 1995
Delhi -12.2 °C (10.04 °F) breaks previous record -10.5 °C set in 1995
Kitchener -15.5 °C (4.1 °F) breaks previous record -11.5 °C (11.3 °F) set in 1982
Guelph -16.7 °C (1.94 °F) breaks previous record -12.8 °C (8.96 °F) set in 1903
Hamilton -10.9 °C (12.38 °F) breaks previous record -10.8 °C (12.56 °F) set in 1995
Barrie -15.0 °C (5 °F) breaks previous record -14.0 °C (6.8 °F) set in 1982
Timmins -24.5 °C (-12.1 °F) breaks previous record -22.9 °C (-9.22 °F) set in 1995
Kirkland Lake -26.5 °C (-15.7 °F) breaks previous record -22.8 °C (-9.04 °F) set in 1970

The potential movement of a 'cold blob' of water in the North Atlantic Ocean may be the wild card in the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season, experts say.

The cold blob refers to a large, anomalous area of colder-than-normal sea-surface temperatures, located east of Newfoundland and south of Greenland.

"This area of colder water started to show up a few years ago and has become larger and more persistent during the past couple of years," AccuWeather Atlantic Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.

Whether or not ocean currents draw cold water from this blob southward into tropical regions of the Atlantic could determine how active the season becomes. With all potential factors in mind, forecasters are predicting that tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic will total 14 this season, two more than what is considered normal.

If the cooler water migrates southward across the eastern Atlantic, then westward into tropical breeding grounds, it will lower sea-surface temperatures over the region where 85 percent of Atlantic tropical systems develop.Another possibility is that the water from the cold blob could alter the makeup of deep ocean currents and affect the salinity of the water. If this happens, the pattern of warming waters that has been occurring since 1995 will reverse, leading to a period of cooling.

The unusually harsh summer heat in Telangana has already started taking a huge toll of human life.

With heatwave conditions prevailing across the state, 66 people have died due to sun stroke and other related problems, officials said.

The highest number of deaths — 28 — were reported from Mahbubnagar, followed by 11 in Medak and five each from Karimnagar and Khammam.

Other deaths were reported in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Warangal and Nalgonda.

According to the Meteorological Department Nizamabad, north Telangana continues to be the hottest area in the state with maximum temperatures of 43.4C followed by Medak and Karimnagar with 43C. Hyderabad recorded 41C.

In an indication of the unbearable hot conditions in the state nowhere was the temperature below 40C.

The severe heatwave was forcing the people to stay indoors during the peak hours of the day and the roads and bazaars in Hyderabad and other major cities were wearing deserted look.

The state administration has advised the people to avoid going out into the open from 12 noon.

Telangana normally witnesses heatwave condition only in the month of May but this year the temperatures have been unusually high and harsh right from the beginning of summer.

Last year more than 2,000 people lost their lives in heatwave in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Officials were fearing worst this year as the Meteorological department has warned of even worse days ahead. Officials have warned that the highest temperature this year may reach 46 to 47 degrees at some places.

Ongoing waves of cold during early April are taking a toll on fruit tree blossoms in parts of the northeastern United States.

Farmers are holding their breath as they wait out the cold to inspect the impact on trees and vines.

The combination of a very mild winter, above-average temperatures during March and the most recent bout of below-freezing temperatures have caused damage to some fruit crops.

"The amount of damage varies from orchard to orchard and from tree to tree," according to Jason Coopey, co-owner of Way Fruit Farm in Stormstown, Pennsylvania.

Coopey stated that thus far apricots and plums have sustained the most damage, but overall his orchards, which are on the tops of hills have fared better than some locations farther south and east and those located in valleys, where the cold air tends to settle.

The snowstorm that swept through Central New York was a record-smasher.

In Syracuse, 6.6 inches of snow fell Sunday. That sets a new record for the snowiest April 3; the previous record was 2.5 inches, set in 1937.

Sunday also ranks as the fourth-snowiest April day on record in Syracuse. The most was 10.5 inches, on April 2, 2013.

Normal snowfall for the month of April in Syracuse is 3.8 inches.

Sunday's snow puts Syracuse ahead in the national Golden Snow Globe race. Syracuse edged past Lakewood, Colorado. Through Sunday, Syracuse has had 79 inches. The normal for the entire season is about 124 inches.

Sea life washing up dead - Earth opening up to swallow rivers and vehicles - Record rainfall in Peru, flooding in Rio de Janeiro - Loud booms of unknown origin shaking homes - Strongest earthquake so far in 2016 hits Indonesia - Meteors lighting up the night sky - Yet another '1-in-1,000-years' rain event flooding central and southern US - Heavy snow in Mexico - A year's worth of rain in one day flooding Persian Gulf states...

This series does not mean the world is ending! These are videos showing a series of extreme weather events that are leading to bigger Earth Changes. If you're following the series, you're seeing the signs. It's much more than one video...

28 Mar 2016 - Image taken in heights of Damascus area (Zabadani) 1150 meters.

See image of coastal area of the highlands (Cadmus) 1,100 meters.

A southward plunge of the polar vortex will direct a couple of blasts of arctic air and potential snow toward portions of the midwestern and northeastern United States during the first week of April.

The main thrusts of the cold air will aim at the Great Lakes, New England and the northern part of the mid-Atlantic at a time when many people are looking forward to increased outdoor spring activities.

Arctic air to deliver shocking cold, hard freezes to the Upper Midwest and Northeast

The first and most dramatic of the two blasts will roll southeastward from Canada this weekend.

The approach and passage of the leading edge of the cold air will be accompanied by gusty winds. Sunday could bring high winds to much of the Northeast, in addition to plunging temperatures.