Is it really January?
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on January 5, 2007 1:52 PM
When Willie Hinton rolled out of bed this morning and checked today's forecast, he was pleasantly surprised.
Temperatures were more like spring than winter.
"It's been getting warm in the afternoon some, but I haven't woken up to 60 degree weather in months," he said. "I just threw on some jeans and a T-shirt."
Waking up to temperatures in the high-50s was a comfortable way to start a weekend, Hinton said as he left the Hardee's on Berkeley Boulevard.
"Let's just hope it stays this way," he said. "Wouldn't that be nice?"
Some Wayne County residents say no.
Temperatures are expected to stay mild this weekend -- potentially reaching the mid-70s. And while that projection suits Hinton "just fine," others see waking up to "spring in winter" this morning as a sign of bad things to come.
Some took their morning coffee with ice this morning. Others, replaced it with a cold soda.
Ronnie West at the McDonald's on Berkeley Boulevard kept his cup of joe hot but recognized it just wasn't the same.
"It's terrible. It needs to be super cold," he said. "We haven't had cold weather for years. It messes up your whole system."
He pointed to the budding trees and how they, like many people across the city, will have to deal with feeling healthy one day and sick the next due to the bipolar weather.
"It's going to turn cold and kill them," West said.
And then there are the bugs -- mosquitos, fire ants and others that tend to stay away during the cold summer months.
West expects the bug problem to be worse this summer because there has been no real cold air to kill them.
Jerry Forbis is worried, too. He thinks a harsh winter is due to set in soon and that the mild weather now might be an indicator for record heat this summer.
"I've heard we'll have one of the hottest summers in 10 years," he said.
But Hinton and others aren't afraid.
"We'll just have to see what happens," Goldsboro resident Monique Williams said. "I don't think the weather now will do anything to the weather later. It's nice to not have to bundle up right now."
West disagrees. He's ready for the real January -- frost on the grass, a thin sheet of ice on the windshield and the white stuff, too.
"I'd love to see three or four inches of snow," he said. "This time of year my body wants cold. Let it drop to 28 degrees, and let it snow."