A local company has seen a big boom in business as more and more people go green. Green technologies are being discussed just about everywhere from the presidential election to business to homeowners. One of the technologies that are gaining popularity is geothermal heating and cooling. 

News10NBC went to a job site in Sodus Point where geothermal heating and cooling is being installed.

Terry and Gail Wolfe’s home in Sodus Point is under construction both inside and out. 

Terry Wolfe said, “Well I hope it becomes a really nice patch of grass and a driveway.” 

Unsightly trenches and dirt piles is what Terry sees as technology in the making.

The average March temperature in Rochester was 47.3 degrees.  This was a remarkable 13 degrees above average.

The average winter (December-January-February) temperature in Rochester was 32.4 degrees.  This placed the winter as the fifth warmest on record.  The warmest winter in Rochester history was in 1931-32 when the average temperature reached 34.5 degrees.  (The only noteworthy item to cheer if you are a winter weather fan was the above normal snowfall that was observed in February.)

Additionally, this past winter nationally also turned out to be the 5th warmest on record.

You thus might be surprised to learn that globally, this winter was the 11th coldest on record in the 34 year satellite record.

This is attributable to the fact that parts of Europe and Asia were breaking records for low temperatures and heavy snow, while we in the States were basking in the glow of a low winter sun.

Meteorological winter ended at midnight last night.  (Astronomical winter has about three weeks left.  And, of course, Mother Nature cares little for how we define winter with accumulating snow falling here as late as May.)  

Certainly no one should ever mistake the winter of 2011-12 as a harsh season in Rochester and the Finger Lakes.

And no one is likely to mistake this past February as a harsh month either.

But February was snowy.  In fact, it was by far the snowiest month of the season.  It was even snowier than the months of November, December and January combined.

The total Rochester snowfall for February was 27.3 inches which was 5.8 inches above normal.  And since 1980, there were only 11 February’s
when more snow fell.

By the way, while the winter nationally was unusually warm and relatively storm free, that was not the case elsewhere in the northern Hemisphere.