A forecast of the time to come

I spoke to a fellow gardener on Long Island yesterday.  He told me he was expecting to dig potatoes within a week.  To someone who grew up on the Island, that was the equivalent of opening Jones Beach on St. Patrick's day and actually swimming in the ocean.  He planted the spuds on March 10 and the weather has been consistently and unseasonably warm ever since.  His tomatoes are blossoming already.   By comparison, my potatoes are about 10 inches high and I have not transplanted tomato  seedlings to the open garden.  A major potato seed grower in upstate N.Y. has not finished planting his potato crop.   This morning another friend e-mailed the news that late blight has already been seen in L.I. potato fields.  So I hope my friend enjoys his potatoes, but the warm weather that made them possible has also made the late blight earlier and perhaps more virulent than ever.  This ongoing climate change will also upset markets throughout the country.  Will the extremely warm weather up and down the east coast accelerate all the crops?  Will orderly marketing remain possible or will there be a wild scramble to sell at non traditional times in certain areas.  It will be an interesting ride as we begin to see the results of our experiment in human driven climate change.  I have a feeling that losers will outnumber winners.