Temperatures ranged from 12 to 15 degrees Celsius in the Crimea in the first week of February! They reached as high as 17 degrees on the Southern Coast of the Crimea while soil, stone, and air was warmed even more thoroughly in the direct sun, with temperatures climbing to 20 degrees. The Crimeans go outside without warm outer clothes, wearing nothing warmer than a sweater, and say that “February went mad this year!” Well, I grant you that warm February is the norm in the Crimea, but when this January was warm, too, and weather forecasters do not foresee any serious cold spells in the coming weeks, it becomes clear that this February did went mad. The forecasters have managed to find just one precedent of such weather in the Crimea that occurred in 1932, with temperatures similarly reaching 13 to 15 degrees...
This is a disaster! Really? Winter crops have germinated, and they are likely to have their strength exhausted prematurely with frail and weak grains formed. Should frosts come, God forbid, in late February or March, or April, or even in May – it did happen before, after all – then the winter crops, unprotected by the snow cover, will suffer even more, and should the cold weather occur during the fruit trees’ blooming period, we will have to say goodbye to berries and fruits, too, or a part of them, at least.
The peninsula’s wild bees are already awake, snowdrops have blossomed, and honeysuckles bloom profusely, while medlars and wintersweets have already finished blossoming. It looks like roses, for their part, have never stopped blossoming in the coastal cities, periodically waking up and showing red buds, which, however, are shed as soon as the plants realize that January and February’s unusual warmth had deceived them... It seems that summer is knocking at the Crimeans’ windows in February.
