Shortest, mildest winter?

Today at half past two when the photo above was taken in our garden, the thermometer read +8C. It felt to all intents and purposes like early spring. Vegetation, however, is still firmly in winter shutdown mode. Other than the air temperature, there are no other intimations of spring's imminent arrival. 

I get the feeling that this year we won't get a real, harsh dose of winter weather, like the one that visited Warsaw in January 2006, when night time temperatures plummeted to -26C. I also recall 1997 - my first year in Poland. In early February there was an unseasonably warm spell which led to the Las Kabacki forest being packed with walkers and cyclists. Mosquitoes swarmed and bit, nature came to life early. But winter returned. Indeed, there was still snow on the ground that year as late as mid-April. [And later came the floods.] I'd bet, however, that 2008 will not be like 1997.

Unseasonal warmth, unseasonal mosquitoes

A long weekend of double-digit temperatures and no frost. The mosquitoes have responded to this by thinking that spring has arrived (very) early, and have hatched out in their multitudes. Bring them on, I say! The next touch of frost and they'll all be dead, hopefully not having reproduced and laid their eggs. Mosquitoes can be nasty. Our first weeks in Poland, back in 1997, coincided with a massive plague. My bedroom was covered in hundreds of splatted midges, many containing doses of my blood. Mosquito plagues are brought on by mild winters that end early, followed by wet springs. (Link to Polish Wikipedia page about the local mosquito, Culex Pipiens.)

I've often wondered what's the point of a 1/4000th top shutter speed - see above. This photo was taken at that speed, with ISO set to 1600. And that still does not entirely freeze the beatings of those tiny wings!