Any one who has listened to the emerald ash borers eating a tree then watch the bark explode can affirm that this wonderful gift of climate deniers must be shared with them.

Even though I believe in global warming, and climate change, both north central Montana, and Minnesota has had some of the coldest weather ever, and in north central Montana, the most snowfall, since they have started keeping records. I grew up in both places, live in Minnesota, and spend about 6-8 weeks, at three different seasons of the year in Montana, now, so I follow the weather of both places.

I don't understand why people think the planet will not change over time. Everything changes with the passage of time. We all understand there have been many many drastic changes in the past why do we not accept that it will change going forward?

I think we will witness to consequences of a warming climate that none of the fast-evolving computer simulations are predicting. I think the scientists working on the cutting edge of the science would agree.

Actually, we're seeing pretty significant winter warming in the Southeast as well. Thing is, it's being expressed in the nighttime lows which occur around 4-5am when no one is around to notice. As a result, we are seeing a wide variety of fall-breeding species moving their activity later into the winter. We are also seeing a lot of pests that used to freeze out now survive the winters here, and come back more voraciously in the summer.

Well, I'm sort of glad to hear this on a local level, but not so much on a global level. Our son just moved from South Carolina/Georgia area where it was very tropical (and becoming more so) to Chicago where I figured he was going to freeze his rear end off. The thing is, we are experiencing extreme weather conditions throughout the country, and its not a sudden thing, but seems to be changing in very noticeable ways in areas which have come to expect certain conditions at certain times of the year, and they either aren't happening at all or getting worse and lasting longer, depending on where one lives. Most areas are at least somewhat prepared to deal with what "normally" happens, but they're unprepared to deal with what is happening. I totally believe in climate change and I totally believe mankind has a lot to do with it. I totally believe that the planet on which we live is a living, changing, evolving entity unto itself. I totally believe there are things we can do to minimize our impact and all/every steps should be taken to do that. Change the things we can and adapt to the things we cannot change.

As noted, the US is becoming the recipient of more variable weather due to rapid Arctic warming and consequently plotting temp extremes would be useful on top of winter averages. But as Arctic sea ice coverage and volume diminish irreversibly in both the northern summer and winter over the next few decades, it's anybody's guess as to what will happen next to your daily weather, but you can be sure the overall climate will slowly become more unpleasant. If any of these changes causes you additional expense, just send a bill to Exxon or any other big oil company, they have known all about it for decades.

This winter warming has been noticed particularly by the pine beetles that used to be killed off by winter cold. Get used to expanded fire seasons as a result.

I am a lifelong New Englander and I want to live in the climate I have always lived in. I enjoy our seasons and don't want to live in warm weather year round. I could never live in the South. I love the fall here, and it was so hot into October last year that the leaves turned late and weren't as colorful as usual. And now downtown Boston is flooding during bad storms. This isn't normal and isn't good.

I live in Northern Michigan. In 1990, we were rated zone 3 for planting. We are now zone 5. Ice fishing ended a month early. There's not enough snow to sustain winter tourism consistently.

I'm not sure why warmer winters are bad. The converse also is the other nine months of the year don't show as much warming. While NOAA shows an avg increase of .25 degrees F per decade 1895 for Jan-Mar, the other 9 months having warmed at only half that rate, max temps, even less. And hat very minimal increase the other 9 months is certainly within the range of error, and much of that minimal warming occurred in areas that are highly urbanized. If you look at much of the country from 1934-2017 (I used 1934 as a start date because it was warm) -- the South, most of the midwest, parts of the northwest, Texas -- avg temps for non winter months have not increased much, max temps virtually not at all -- in some states max temps have decreased. So --- what am I missing? Milder winters in colder states and most of the country the other 9 months -- looking at max temps -- are slightly milder as well. And when I say highly urbanized areas -- here's an example. Nevada shows an avg temp increase of .2 per decade -- but most of that is driven by the southern area -- Las Vegas -- where avg temps have increased .7 F per decade since 1950. And I also wonder if some of the uptick in temps is driven by an increase in the # of weather stations -- more weather stations collecting temps in a standardized way may simply be getting at what the real avg temp is. US had about 2k stations in 1900 per Berkeley earth, now it has 9k. Some areas had few stations at all in 1900.

Thank you for the magnificent graphical presentation of this data. It makes these subjects easier to understand.

In a recent presentation ( https://youtu.be/KsecTT1SIrg?t=38m45s ) the glaciologist Richard Alley shows a map of the world ( http://images.slideplayer.com/25/7879892/slides/slide_17.jpg ) with red areas where he says that if we don’t change our ways, by the time his students are old the average summer would be hotter than anything yet experienced, with 90 percent confidence. And that we would lose 40 percent of the ability to work outside in the hot months, with some countries it’ll be closer to 100 percent. (unless you can afford an air-conditioned tractor) By late in this century you’d start to have places where it is projected to be too hot to survive outside, it’s like being locked in a hot car on a summer day with no air conditioning, you die. Next century those areas would spread.

maps 2 and 3 are almost inverses of each other. Not sure that helps the argument being made.

This article and all of the graphs do an injustice to what is actually going on to our entire planet since the start of the industrial age. If you were to plug in THOSE numbers and show people what is going on the measurements would be off the scale and much more pronounced. Only by showing the ''cold'' hard facts, are we going to prompt people into action to change their ways.

You do know Alaska is a part of America and has for years been the bellweather fo these changes.

You people in the news media create the impression that global warming is not occurring by focusing on the areas of the world that have cold winters, like the Northeastern U.S. However, in the rest of the U.S. and world, we are experiencing record HEAT and DROUGHT. But that is not dramatic, so it is not deemed newsworthy.

More striking are maps showing the northward migration of plant hardiness zones, reflecting sensitivity to marginal changes: https://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm Some zones have moved more than 100 miles northward in twenty years. Get ready for palmettos (a zone 8 plant) in coastal New Jersey by 2040.

This article talks about weather, not climate. The contiguous USA covers only 1.5% of the planet. Then the article only looks at 3 months (winter) so we are down to looking at a very small slice of the planet over a carefully chosen time frame. This is know in the business as 'cherry picking'. The raw temperature data for the contiguous US summer in contrast shows a cooling since the dirty 30's. The story also quotes the winter of 2018 in the data, even though there is still a week left of the 2018 winter (plus the delay in analyzing the data), so there are obvious factual errors, even without looking at the values they show.

Please send this to 1600. He doesn't like to read, but maybe he'll find the charts engaging.

Where I'm sitting right now was under 300 feet of ice 12,000 years ago, and now it's all gone, so indeed we have global warming. I regard the trend as a godsend. Why complain?

The idea that the "Northern Great Plains" stretches to Wisconsin and Michigan doesn't jibe with any definition I can find out there and I can only imagine that the authors have some difficulty telling forest from plain.

I doubt that many in these regions see slightly warmer winters as a bad thing.

Noticeably warmer in NH from when I first moved up here from LI in the 1970's. Still knee deep in snow but don't get that month of subzero temps.

If the NY Times wants to be a national newspaper, it really should make sure that it's reporters know where the Great Plains are. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/?cid=stelp... Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan are never considered to be part of the Great Plains.

How is this evidence that human activity is causing global warming?

Go back to sleep, America. This liberal propaganda may be ignored. Keep driving your gas-guzzling behemoth Tahoe and Lincoln Navigator and forget about those puny people who try to stop you from showing off your ride with its NRA stickers. They'll be taken care of soon, anyway.

As a lifelong Minnesotan, I think about this all the time. I don't know how anyone who has lived here several decades as I have could deny the difference in our winters overall. Yes, we have cold snaps, and yes, our winters are still very intimidating to non-Upper-Midwesterners. But they are different than they used to be -- they just are. Instead of arguing with friends who deny human contribution to climate change, I put the question this way: What are we going to do? Our MN winters are integral to our economy. If we start losing snow cover, what happens to our winter sports industry? If the ice isn't thick enough to be safe, what happens to ice fishing and pond hockey? What happens to our Up North forests if it's too warm for the trees that live there now? The moose? Maybe we can't stop it, and obviously we aren't going to sink into the ocean up here in landlocked Minnesota, but how exactly are we prepared to deal with this change?

Enjoying the slightly warmer winters up here but it is shortening the ice fishing season.