In New York Central Park, it's looking more like spring with temperatures in the 50s. Cherry blossoms are blooming in the nation's capital months early. Skiers in New England have to find snow between the patches of grass. In Ohio, that lack of snow means golfers get a jump-start on the season in what would normally be frigid temperatures. There's been plenty of snow dumped on Colorado, why is it so unusually warm in the northeast? Scientists say one culprit is El Nino.

It's essentially a warm pool of water in the Pacific that sloshes back and forth on a 2 to 7 years' cycle. Forecasters say for the US, El Nino means a mild winter in some parts of the country and wet conditions in others, and others say it is not just El Nino. Some experts including one at the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say: it's playing a large factor, in fact if you didn't have increasing green house gases, we will not be seeing these consecutive very warm years following one after the other both here in the US and globally. Parts of Europe including the Alps have had unseasonably warm temperatures; the British climate scientists predict a new milestone for the globe: there's a high likelihood that 2007 will be the warmest year globally on record. Scientists say one year doesn't make a trend, but some say it's part of an overall climate change that is triggering concern. Some believe the impact can be seen in the US in the past year alone.

"In the US, we had record wildfire season in part because of the large drought conditions in the summer record temperatures, and we've been burnt about 9.5 million acres of our forests. And so these hyper-trends do have a profound impact."

Scientists say the change in climate being seen to serve as a wake- up call for how to plan for the future.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

jump-start :to start something in a very active and successful way 发动
slosh:if a liquid sloshes, or you slosh it, it moves violently inside its container, or some of it comes out of the container 剧烈晃动