FULTON – The CNY Arts Center will host a drumming workshop in collaboration with the Society for New Music on March 15 from 1 to 3 p.m. The workshop is open to everyone, and the center recommends people to bring any hand percussion instruments that they own.

Diane Jones, the main presenter of the event, is a composer, as well as a percussionist for the SU Brazilian Ensemble Samba Laranja. She also hosted a show on WCNY-FM, Central New York’s Classic Radio Station, and has performed with Mélomanie, The Relâche Ensemble, The Da Capo Chamber Players and Flautet.

“We are honored to host Diane Jones and to have had Cheryl Wilkins-Mitchell share this wonderful opportunity with us,” said executive director Nancy Fox. “We hope everyone will seize the chance for an afternoon of drumming fun!”

The event is being held in the CNY Arts Center, located on 357 State Street. The workshop will cost a modest fee, and pre-registration is encouraged.

For additional information, please visit www.CNYArtsCenter.com or call 315-592-3373.

Winter may not be over yet, but just by looking around you would think it ended weeks ago. The few signs that remain of winter slowly melted away last week as temperatures soared into the 40’s. According to Dr. Scott Steiger the local co-op observer for the National Weather Service, we’ve only received forty-nine point one inches of snow as of February 29th.

An alarming seven feet below the average snowfall for this time of year. Though it’s not surprising that we’ve seen so little snowfall, through the winter months Oswego ran 2.9 degrees above average temperature-wise. January saw the worst of the effects of the warm winter at an amazing 6 degrees above average.

Students, either way, have taken advantage of the spring-like conditions and have used the time to spend their days outside. While others were left waiting for the snow that never came like Florida native Bruno Rojas. Bruno had this to say about the past winter in Oswego “There weren’t that many lake effect events in Oswego so you never really got to see…big snow storms, where you could just sit down you know in the snow and just kind of watch the really big snowflakes kind of fall really gracefully. ”

Many have expressed similar views, asking constantly where was winter this year? The answer? There was a strong Arctic Oscillation or AO, that was in its positive phase. When it’s in a positive phase we oftentimes see a lot of the cold air trapped up in Canada. It’s when it enters its negative phase that it starts to allow the colder air to funnel down into the United States. and that’s what allows for those cold Oswego winters that we all know.

While this was certainly an anomalous winter, it is part of a longer-term trend of winter warming across upstate New York. The trend becomes obvious on this chart from climate central, showing how Syracuse’s average winter temperatures have warmed 2.8° since 1970. While this chart is only for Syracuse, the changes can be seen all across New York as our climate continues to change.