On January 1st, confronted with the coldest New Year's Day in Chicago history, I predicted that every other day in 2018 would be warmer.
I was right.* Even though the overnight low on January 2nd was just as cold (-23°C) as the night before, the day warmed up all the way to -13°C from January 1st's -17°C. Ten days later it hit 15°C, and kept bouncing around like that all winter.
Last I saw, the NCDC predicted the coming winter would be normally wet and slightly warmer than most. I'd link to the page, but thanks to President Trump's infantile temper, I got this instead:
Thanks, Obama Trump!
* Yes, through some supernatural intervention we could have weather 22°C below predictions tonight or tomorrow, but I'm pretty confident the current forecast of -1°C is likelier.
With the passing of midnight just a few moments ago in Samoa, the world has officially and completely moved into 2017.
Whew.
It's just past midnight in the island nation of Kiritimati (pronounced "Christmas"), which means 2016 has officially ended somewhere in the world. I am overjoyed. I just hope 2017 goes better for everyone, but with the least-qualified person in history about to become President, my hope has limits.
Happy new year, central Pacific island states!
Sorry, Hawai'i. Your UTC-10 is a full day behind Kiritimati, where it's already coming up on Saturday. But happy new year regardless!
And to the few sailors and submariners hanging out in UTC-11, happy new year to you, too, in an hour or so.
Happy New Year from the Daily Parker. It's just past midnight in Chicago, so it's the "real" new year for me and everyone I'm with.
Here's to 2016 improving on 2015, no matter who you are or how good 2015 turned out.
It's just past midnight UTC, so happy new year to all the world's properly-configured computers, wherever they may be. And to the UK, Portugal, and much of West Africa.
It's already 6:30 am on Kiritimati (Christmas) Island. I was going to have The Daily Parker automatically wish Kiritimatians a happy new year right at midnight, but I didn't think about it early enough, clearly.
So: Happy new year, Kiribati, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Irkutsk, Singapore, and everywhere else whose time zone is east of UTC+7.
Expect some silliness in today's Daily Parker time stamps, starting with this one (published 31 December 2015 10:32 CST).