Associated Press
PARIS — When the cherry trees blossomed last week — during what is usually Paris’ coldest month — it was somehow proof that this has been a weird, weird winter.
It’s not just that the weather has been unseasonably warm in parts of Europe lately. Two weeks ago it snowed in Saudi Arabia. Weather patterns have been turned on their heads.
After a record-breaking cold snap in early January, people from Athens to Moscow are ditching their winter coats for shirt sleeves. Meteorologists are recording the highest temperatures for the dates in over a century — and Paris parks are flowering in February.
"It feels more like April in Paris," said Jean-Noel Burte, chief gardener at Paris’ Luxembourg Gardens, where cherry blossoms have appeared about six weeks early and sunbathers are out in force.
In Vienna, temperatures climbed to 66 degrees on Tuesday, the highest on that date since Austria began recording temperatures in 1872. Meteorologists said that periods of thaw were nothing unusual, but that such a long spate of warm weather in January was exceptional.
Ski resorts in France’s southern Alps are suffering from a lack of snow, as are many of the lower altitude resorts in Switzerland. Midweek temperatures in some parts of the Swiss Alps hit 61 degrees Fahrenheit.
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