Northern Europe experiences record warm winter

Der Spiegel online (Germany): ...This has been a record winter in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. Ship captains report historically small amounts of sea ice in the Baltic -- so small, in fact, that Swedish and Finnish icebreakers have spent most of the winter idle and at anchor. According to Jürgen Holfort of Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, this winter will likely go down in history as the one with the least ice since 1720. The Gulf of Bothnia, the northern end of the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, is normally completely icebound from late February until mid-March, says Holfort. But this winter there was ice only in its northernmost tip and in a few archipelago zones farther south.

When it comes to ice thickness, the winter has also been abnormal, although this has been good for the ferry business. The express ferries between the Estonian capital Tallinn and the Finnish city of Helsinki, which normally halt service between December and April, have been able to operate practically without interruption...

Other experts agree that this winter is unusually warm. John Ekwall of the Swedish weather service told the Associated Press that this is "the warmest winter ever." The average temperature in Stockholm, according to Ekwall, was above 2 degrees Celsius (36° Fahrenheit) from December to February -- the highest temperatures since records were first kept in 1756. Some 12 other weather stations across Sweden also reported record temperatures. The news was no different on the other side of the Baltic. Southern Finland has had only 20 days of snow so far this winter. The region normally sees more than three times as many snowy days.

...Meteorologists are relatively tightlipped when asked to explain the cause of the high temperatures. "No one but St. Peter himself knows that," says Lux, referring to the saint that Germans traditionally believe to be responsible for the weather. Lux adds that climate change could be part of the cause, although this would be difficult to prove.