A chaotic carousel is turning at Boston City Hall.

One week has passed since City Councilor Liz Breadon, who represents District 9, was elected president following a last-minute candidacy.

“It’s been a very rock start,” said District 2 City Councilor Ed Flynn.

“It’s really important, today, that we move forward,” said City Councilor Sharon Durkan of District 8.

Breadon claiming the gavel was aided by a late-night meeting from Durkan and District 5 City Councilor Enrique Pepén, who came to Breadon’s home hours before the vote asking her to be a compromise candidate.

In November, District 1 City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata claimed to have the votes needed to become council president, but she faced a challenge from City Councilor Brian Worrell of District 4.

Coletta Zapata bowed out of the race the night before the vote.

“This city council election for presidency divided the council,” said Flynn. “Many people thought of all the 13 city councilors, the most talented and well-respected was Brian Worrell.”

“You actually saw it all play out in real time on the council floor,” said Durkan. “A lot’s been made about the visit that I made to Councilor Braden’s house. It really, I just thought she would make a good president, and when I was unable to reach her on the phone, I just thought, ‘Why not.’”

Questions have also swirled about whether Boston Mayor Michelle Wu played a role in Breadon’s candidacy.

“My choice for president has always been about what I think is good for the city, but it’s true, what’s good for the city council and what’s good for the mayor is good for the city,” said Durkan.

That back-and-forth spilled into the weekend. On Friday, Breadon told NBC10 Boston’s @Issue that she would choose Coletta Zapata as her vice president. But on Saturday, she said Coletta Zapata wanted to be chair of government operations instead, and that Worrell would be vice president.

Sunday night, Worrell said he would decline the role, and on Monday, Coletta Zapata said she had accepted it.

“I look forward to a city council that’s ready to work, together, for our city,” Coletta Zapata said via text message.

Breadon echoed those sentiments on @Issue.

“It behooves me to really engage with my colleagues and try and heal the wounds and move forward as a solid body,” she said.

The Boston City Council does not have a scheduled meeting until Jan. 28 as committee assignments for the term are finalized.

Have you noticed a lack of major snowstorms over the past several winters here in New England? Perhaps you’re wondering if this is a new permanent pattern. Snowfall across New England is highly variable, particularly here in the Boston area and the rest of Southern New England, where we lie on the southern edge of consistent snowfall.

First, let’s look at how radically different winter snowfall can be. On Feb. 25, 2022, Boston received 8½ inches of snow. That was the last time the city saw a 6-inch snowfall, which is meteorologically considered a “major snowfall” in New England (accumulation of at least 6 inches of snow). Roughly 1,414 days later and counting, we are now in the midst of our second-longest streak devoid of 6-inch snowfalls, since data was first recorded in 1872. You have to go back to 1988-92 to find a similar “major snow” drought. That streak lasted 1,772 days.

As a side note, the Boston area would have to make it through this entire winter without a major snowstorm to move into the No. 1 spot. Will we do it?

These gaps in significant snowstorms might be considered mini snow droughts, but when they end, the winter weather pattern tends to shift in the other direction. For example, when that streak ended in 1992, it ushered in three of four blockbuster winters, including one that dumped over 107 inches of snow in the winter of 1995-96.

This very snowy mid-’90s was followed by highly variable snowfall seasons with as little as 15 inches of snow in 2001-02 and as much as nearly 87 inches of snow several years later during the 2004-05 winter season.

Then, starting in 2008 and lasting until 2018, we experienced the snowiest decade on record in Greater Boston with a total of 543 inches of snowfall.

If you move the starting point to winter 2015-16 and conclude through 2025, we received only 333 inches of snow, marking the lowest 10-year period of snowfall on record. This is where we currently sit, and it makes sense with the lack of major nor’easters nearing New England over the past several winters.

Even winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service have fallen. Check out the chart below, and you’ll notice that the past several years have seen fewer than six winter storm warnings issued.

All of this should not lull you into a false sense that we are in some new paradigm without major coastal storms or that it’s not going to be snowy again. On the contrary, nor’easters are actually getting stronger and are generating more precipitation than they used to. According to research published last summer on the intensification of the strongest nor’easters, noted climate scientist Michael Mann and five of his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania looked at how our famous coastal storms have changed over the past several decades.

“Our analysis of nor’easter characteristics reveals that the strongest nor’easters are becoming stronger, with both the maximum wind speeds of the most intense nor’easters and hourly precipitation rates increasing since 1940,” the researchers said.

The reason why I’m mentioning this while also talking about the lack of snow in our region is that both can be true. As we have seen, snowfall itself is very cyclical. That cycle is occurring amid a backdrop of a warming climate. With more and more anthropogenic CO2 — carbon dioxide emissions resulting from human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels — average temperatures have increased, and that rise has led to an availability of more energy for coastal storms.

As the oceans warm, they provide more latent heat or fuel for these nor’easters. Additionally, with warmer temperatures and still an availability of cold air to the north, there’s an increase in temperature contrast, or what meteorologists call “baroclinicity.” This is a critical feature and aids in the rapid intensification or bombogenesis of low-pressure areas east of the Atlantic Seaboard.

The Perfect Storm back in 1991, the Storm of the Century in 1993, the so-named Snowmageddons in February 2010 and winter 2015, and the January 2018 blizzard are all examples of unusually strong nor’easters.

The trend in maximum wind speed in nor’easters has increased since the middle of the last century. You can see from the Mann paper some of the actual data used to reach this conclusion.

In addition, hourly precipitation has also increased in these coastal storms. This means that crippling snow and flooding rain are becoming more likely in spite of the recent dearth of these types of storms locally.

In the same way that we haven’t had a hurricane reach the shores of New England since 1991, so too are we overdue for a major nor’easter. Both are in our future. It’s just a matter of when.

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Digennaro’s wife, Judy, shook her head in disagreement.

“I feel quite the other way,” said Judy Digennaro, 72. “It might start rifts, but what’s most important is people talking, and that’s what the pope is trying to do.”

During a news conference with Vatican reporters in December, the pope called for dialogue between the United States and Venezuela. On Friday, he said violence had replaced dialogue as a means of resolving conflict and reiterated an earlier call to “respect the will of the Venezuelan people, and to safeguard the human and civil rights of all, ensuring a future of stability and concord.”

Some local Catholics said the remarks felt like an overstep. David Digennaro said he supports the Trump administration’s move to shift Venezuela’s leadership away from Maduro and would prefer the pope to limit his comments to humanitarian issues.

“If he’s talking about the people that live [in Venezuela,] that’s fine,” he said. “But if he’s referencing Maduro, that’s politics, and I’d turn away from it.”

Outside St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine in Back Bay, parishioners in crisp suits and colorful dresses filed out onto the sidewalk after Mass on Sunday afternoon. Several people said the pope’s address had not been mentioned during the service and praised the clergy for keeping the news separate from religious teaching.

Others voiced support for Pope Leo’s broader message of peace and dialogue but said they prefer that the pontiff avoid specifics.

Jordan Williamson, 35, of Quincy, said the pope is not the authority on international affairs. She said she looks to politicians for details about global conflicts and to Leo for moral guidance.

“The pope should be a moral voice that lays down the framework for why we do things,” said Williamson, who has attended the Boylston Street church for more than a decade. “But we all have jobs … and Mass is meant to transcend all of that.”

Williamson’s friend, Sandra Pastrana of Arlington, agreed, saying she often steers her Bible study group away from political debate. Still, she said she recognizes that there are moments when religious leaders need to speak their minds.

“It’s never good for the church to get involved in politics, but as a moral voice of how the world should live within what’s going on, the church has a duty to say these things,” said Pastrana, 63.

Judy Digennaro said Leo’s address was encouraging, adding that society cannot move forward positively without open discussion.

“I’m happy when the pope has something to say and when he promotes peace and justice,” she said. “As Catholics, that’s what we’re all about, so if he’s willing to speak and say something, all the better.”

Many Boston churchgoers were unaware of the pope’s address and said that they focused more on the words of their individual priests.

Gobran Hanna, an electrical engineer who moved to Cambridge in June and attends St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine, said he tends to spend time with members of the Catholic community who are less focused on politics, but conversations with fellow congregants about Israel, Ukraine, and Venezuela help keep him informed about global affairs.

Hanna said he welcomes Leo’s efforts to speak out against international injustices.

“When the pope makes a statement that might be related to politics, I look at that and see how it applies to my own life,” said Hanna, 23. “It’s not about somebody on this side or somebody on that side, it’s about how we can apply the lessons that the pope is teaching us.”

Lila Hempel-Edgers can be reached at lila.hempeledgers@globe.com. Follow her on X @hempeledgers and on Instagram @lila_hempel_edgers.