“The stretch of unseasonably warm weather is unprecedented and will be above normal for almost 30 days in a row now. Our normal is 38,” CBS 2 Meteorologist John Bolaris said.[…] The main force behind the record
warmth is mostly related to El Nino, a weather phenomenon that occurs every several years and usually creates milder winter for the northeast. El Nino occurs when waters off the Peruvian coast continue to warm late in the year.
The phenomenon was first mentioned over 110 years ago by Peruvian fishermen who were perplexed by the strange weather, but even more baffled by a surplus of dead fish in the water. It was actually the warming of the water that killed the fish, and when the ocean warms like that, it has a global effect. “Normally, the stronger the El Nino, the more mild winter and less in the way of snow for the northern tier, northeast and mid-Atlantic. However in an El Nino year you can still have a superstorm either with snow or rain,” Bolaris says. El Nino, Spanish for “the child,” was said to have received its name from the Peruvian fishermen because it occurs around Christmas time.