It appears to be an outlier year. The west US had an unusually dry and warm winter while the east US was cold and snowy. No matter when we have iceout, the watershed has not been this frozen on March 26'th, in my 25+ years watching it. Meanwhile, the polar ice cap
continues its decline.
The changing climate triggers political debate, because cleaning up from all the anomalies is expensive. New budgets, laws and customs have to change along with the climate. But not everyone is on the same page. In all probability, some inconvenient truths are real, and some not. In some cases, the discussion boils down to science versus beliefs.
One truth is; we have been getting record setting downpours in NH over the last 10 years. Just to be safe, the state changed the design codes for drainage culverts to specify one size larger pipe than previous codes. the hope is that fewer roads will wash out. That's the pragmatic approach that I hope most agree with.
The global issue, with no easy answers is; who pays for third world countries climate woes.