I love this weather. It scares me.

I walked extra with Lumi this morning in the park. It was in the 60s and I was wearing a T-shirt on under my lightest jacket. Partway through the walk, I took the jacket off and tied it around my waist; a T-shirt was all I needed.The sun on my face felt refreshing; the warm breeze on my skin a nice respite from winter.In the New York metro area, we've had temperatures in the 50s all week. When I woke up this morning, it was already 58 degrees. I love that kind of weather! Spring is my favorite season. Warm enough to go without a jacket, but cool enough to wear boots.But here's the thing: It's Feb. 24. It shouldn't be that warm. Nowhere close to it.Sure, the outlier here and there happens. That's why there are record lows and record highs for every day of the year that are crazy because they're so far outside the realm of normal.I am not a scientist, least of all a climate scientist - let me make that clear. But it shouldn't take a degree to see that something is seriously wrong here. Last year was the third in a row of it being the hottest year on record.  The temperature for the region in February is usually in the 30s. While it wasn't a record high today, at 70 degrees, it was close (75 degrees in 1985) and waaaaaay above the record low (-4 in 1873).If this year were out of the ordinary, it'd be one thing. I mean, look at 1985's high for today. It happens. But it's happening year after year after year.Call it global warming, call it climate change, call it whatever you want. Closing our eyes to it and pretending it doesn't exist isn't going to make it go away.Today was the loveliest day of the year so far. It scared the heck outta me.Photo by Edgar Zuniga Jr. via Flickr Creative Commons.