The unseasonably warm winter the area has been experiencing this
season has natural gas prices going down, the ladybug population up
and Bradford area residents wondering if winter is coming at all
this year.

Paul Head, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in
State College, said Monday “pure Pacific air” (instead of Artic
Ocean air) has been coming across the Pacific Ocean onto the North
American continent.

“Without Artic air, it can’t get cold,” Head said.

Head went on to say that a warm winter like the one we are
having now usually accompanies an “El Nino winter;” this however,
he said, is not an El Nino season.

“The Pacific is firing at us like a machine gun,” Head said,
adding he was unsure why there has been an absence of Artic air. In
other places in the world, he said, like Asia, it is very cold this
year, but the United States and southern section of Canada are
having a very mild winter.

Regarding the rest of the week, Head said temperatures will cool
off, but still be above normal. Looking forward to the beginning of
the second week of February, however, a “significant storm” will be
on the way.

“It does appear a significant storm is forming in the Southern
Plains that Friday, rocketing up the Ohio Valley on Saturday,” Head
said. He added colder air will be a result of the storm. The storm
will blow over the Great Lakes, bringing rain and a tail of Artic
air, he said.

“There will be a huge air change between Saturday and Sunday,”
Head said.

While area residents have already seen a couple brief “cold
snaps” this winter, this one will last a little longer, Head said.
Winds coming into Canada will act as a “conduit,” he said, to bring
cold air and lake effect snow.

“It will be like having early winter late in winter -ðlike
re-starting, if you will,” he said.

As a result of what is arguably a “heat wave,” for Bradford at
this time of the year, gas companies providing service to local
customers have been forced to lower their rates.

National Fuel spokesperson Nancy Taylor said Monday that when
the company makes its regularly scheduled adjustment with the
public utility commission today, they will be filing for a “slight
decrease” to take effect Wednesday.

Taylor said she could not talk dollars and cents until the
filing process was completed today. The next quarterly filing after
Wednesday will be May 1, she said.

“As we experience changes in rates, we will pass them along,”
Taylor said, “As costs continue to decline, prices will reflect
that.”

Statistics gathered by National Fuel headquarters showed January
this year was “30 percent warmer than normal,” Taylor said.

Columbia Gas spokesperson Leslie Orbin said her company is
experiencing much the same trend and filed an interim rate decrease
with the public utility commission for a rate decrease to be
effective Wednesday. While Columbia Gas was not due to file until
April 1, officials asked for the right to file an interim decrease
that takes effect Wednesday, Orbin said.

She agreed with Taylor, also mentioning that the month of
January this year was “29.2 percent warmer than normal” across the
state.

Unofficial records kept at The Era show temperatures in January
dating back to the mid-1980s generally hover in the 20s and 30s.
Record highs are close to 60 degrees; records lows, -20 degrees.
The high and low for Monday recorded at The Era were 50 and 38,
respectively.

And while the good news is that our gas bills will go down, the
bad news, for some, is that the warmer weather means come of
nature’s creepy crawlers think it’s already spring.

Some area residents have been complaining about
out-of-the-ordinary ladybug infestations. While an entomologist at
Pennsylvania State University was not available for further
information Monday afternoon, a Web site run by a Florida-based,
Georgia College and University-educated “nature educator,” Lori
Beth Robinson had this to say about ladybug hibernation.

Apparently the ladybugs – Asian lady beetles are found in
abundance in this area – hibernating under the sliding of a house
or apartment emerge with warmer temperatures.

“It’s just that they are going in the wrong direction … the
ladybugs are merely confused,” she said.