January 1st 2017 was 65 degrees. Three months later March 15th was a frigid 47 degrees. This year has been the warmest recorded since 1880. In 1880 our president was Rutherford B. Hayes, Thomas Edison patented his electric light, and the first city to ever be illuminated entirely by electricity was built.

The insanity started last week when the high was 55 degrees in Charleston, SC. Since the beginning of the new year it has never been colder. The scientific reason that Live Science quotes is a “polar vortex eddy.” It is all caused by cold air from Alaska and Canada blowing down and across a large part of the United States. This cold air is what caused the snow in the northeast and the frigid temperatures in the across the country.

Is climate change to blame? No, it is very hard for meteorologists and other weather experts to link one weather event to global warming. But, the average temperatures of January have been much higher over the last 10 years. The extreme winters followed by hotter and hotter summers may however be connected to global warming.