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By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent +(AwSh!  
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OSLO(Reuters) - After the coldest start to a year in more than a decade,spring will bring relief to the northern hemisphere from Thursday. |E|T%i^}./  
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Buckingthe trend of global warming, the start of 2008 saw icy weather aroundthe world from China to Greece. But despite its chilly start, 2008 isexpected to end up among the top 10 warmest years since records beganin the 1860s. .jum "va%  
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This winter, ski resorts from the United States toScandinavia have deep snow. Last year, after a string of mild winters,some feared climate change might put them out of business. '5cZzC 2  
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Inmany countries crops and plants are back on a more "normal" schedule.Cherry trees in Washington are on target to blossom during a March29-April 13 festival that has sometimes mistimed the peak blooms. Hc /wta  
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"Sofar 2008, for the globe, has been quite cold, only just above the1961-90 average," said Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unitat the University of East Anglia which supplies global temperature datato the United Nations. bN4d:0Y  
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"This is just January and February, so two coolish months comparable to what happened in 1994 and 1996," he told Reuters. V!}L<cN  
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The northern spring formally begins on March 20 this year. 0 c,bet{m  
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Andan underlying warming trend, blamed by the U.N. Climate Panel on humanuse of fossil fuels, is likely to reassert itself after the end of a LaNina cooling of the Pacific in the coming months. There were similarconditions in 1998 and 2005, the hottest so far, Jones said. S{Rh
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SNOW AND SANDSTORMS *j/uihY  
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Chinasuffered its worst snowstorms in a century in January and February. Atleast 80 people died and the government estimated costs at more than150 billion yuan ($21 billion), including animal deaths and crop losses. i:\bqK  
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Sandstorms hit Beijing on Tuesday and residents rushed to hide from the dust mixed with petals from the city's magnolia trees. 2f s9JP{^0  
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Duringthe northern winter, snows also fell in unusual places such as Greece,Iraq and Florida. Experts say climate change will bring more swings aspart of a warming that will bring more droughts, floods, heatwaves andrising seas. qT 5WaO)  
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U.S. ski resorts reported above average snowfall. IJ+O),'  
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"We're90 percent sure we will extend the season for at least a couple ofweeks toward the end of April," said Jeff Hanle, a spokesman for theAspen Skiing Co. in Colorado. The mountain town has had 400 inches ofsnow, the normal amount for the whole season, which still has a monthto go. :d, >d   
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Skiers "have got big smiles on their faces," he said. g{rt^B  
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"It'sbeen a good season all around," said Tom Horrocks, spokesman of theKillington Ski Resort in Vermont. He said meteorologists said moreconsistent snows were typical for a La Nina season in the northeast. 54, Ju'r  
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Butnot all places have been chilly -- Jones said western and northernEurope were the warmest parts of the northern hemisphere in the firsttwo months of 2008. s?1-$|*  
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NASA satellite data this week showed the thickest and oldest ice around the North Pole has been disappearing. C.B8 J"T-  
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Finlandhad its warmest winter on record. High-speed ferries between Helsinkiand Tallinn in Estonia, normally halted for months by winter ice on theBaltic Sea, started earlier than ever in mid-March. 8trm`?>  
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In Norway,many ski resorts have deep snow even though the winter has been thethird warmest on record -- scientists say a spinoff of climate changemay be more precipitation. b*$o[wO9  
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"Turnover is 16 percent over the best season of 2004," said Andreas Roedven, head of Norway's Alpine Ski Area Association. P^o
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Electricityprices in the Nordic region halved this month to 27.5 euros ($43.48)per megawatt hour from late 2007 highs because hydropower reservoirswere full and warm temperatures curbed heating demand. =#PudF.\  
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Seniorofficials from about 190 nations will meet in Bankok from March31-April 4 to start work on a new long-term treaty to combat climatechange to succeed the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol.
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