I was a bit nervous when I moved back to the Midwest after six years in Southern California. The weather along the West Coast can lull you into a pleasant-Prozac-like sense that its always just about to turn from spring to summer -- sunny, but not sweaty, and you still need a sweatshirt at night.

But my first winter back in the Midwest after 22 years has been really nice -- even reaching into the 60's in January. I was joking about the global warming business on Twitter, but I will admit that I'm happy I haven't had to bust out my ski jacket too many times.

This change in the weather has had people talking about climate change for some time now. There’s drought, there's flooding -- heck, Kansas City has warmed up so much that the USDA moved it up to Zone 6 from Zone 5 on the plant hardiness scale.

This all got the PBS News Hour folks wondering. They want to hear your firsthand perspective about the climate in your backyard – which you can tell them by clicking here.

Already, our Facebook friends have chimed in with their reports. Scott Good commented:

Daffodils blooming in mid January and the first robins on 08 February in West Metro Atlanta, GA.

Juli Cramer said:

Drought. Unseasonably warm weather. Temperature extremes. Flooding from upstream sources. Increase in insects and other pests and diseases.

And Mark Browning reminded us that maybe we shouldn’t be so caught up in anecdotal reporting:

My understanding is that we have WEATHER in our own backyard. CLIMATE is a larger phenomenon both geographically and temporally. But why should we let such trivia get in the way?

What do you think? Help our pals at PBS News Hour report this story by telling them what’s happening to the climate in your community.