Great warm weather for golfers

Boaters were cruising over the river in downtown Chicago amid one among Illinois' warmest winters on record. Golfers were smacking balls with a central Minnesota course that opened weeks prior to a year ago.

And an ice-breaking mission on Maine's Kennebec River on Tuesday was the shortest in recent memory ?a because the Coast Guard found no ice.

It's similar to we skipped winter now we're gonna skip spring, too, said Gino Izzi, a senior meteorologist on the National Weather Service's Chicago office.

Forecasters are predicting that Taylormade Burner 2.0 irons temperatures will probably remain unusually high through March.

Izzi said the next thunderstorm pattern is a random but normal fluctuation. A jet stream moving north to south on the West Coast is pushing a contrary, seesaw effect inside remaining portion of the nation. Atmospheric patterns, such as Pacific phenomenon known as La Nina, have kept cold air bottled up over Canada and contributed to the warmer winter in snow-accustomed elements of the continental U.S.

Tuesday's warm weather was raising some concerns, including upping potential risk of wildfires. The usually warm, dry and windy conditions prompted six North Dakota counties to declare fire emergencies and institute burn bans.

Another effect of rising temperatures: Americans belief in our planets atmosphere, based on a December poll that found 62 percent of individuals believed planet earth was getting warmer, a boost from previous polls. Nearly half them based that belief on personal weather observations, University of Michigan and Muhlenberg College researchers found.

In Minnesota, golfers were greeting summer in the Eagle Valley The game in suburban St. Paul that opened Tuesday a weeks prior to when last year's chilly, soggy spring start. Within callaway x-24 hot irons an hour of their post-lunch opening, many players were about the course, head golf pro Dan Moris said.

We're hoping it is a manifestation of positive things into the future, Moris said.

The ice rink was empty at Chicago's iconic Millennium Park, where crowds were instead strolling and admiring the reflection in the skyline inside a large, mirror-surfaced sculpture called the Bean.

Nearby, new city residents Katie and Chris Anderson left work early to shell out their second loved-one's birthday over a tennis court. They said these were surprised at the elements due to Chicago's legendary cold winter.

I really was nervous about moving here, Katie Anderson said. Her husband added: We expected the worst.

In Boston, pedestrians traded puffy jackets and knit hats abbreviated sleeves. At the tanning salon inside city's Seaport District, a couple of flip-flops sat in front of one tanning booth, and two sneakers rested by another.

Everyone definitely has spring fever, employee B-Jay Angiulo said, adding which it would be a good sign for business discount golf clubs that a couple of the six tanning booths were full before 5 p.m. I think the sun's out so people have to get a little spring color happening.

In Tennessee, where temperatures since December are already 4 degrees above normal, tourism officials said the elements should help their industry, including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, new bands attractions in Nashville and Elvis Presley's Graceland home in Memphis.