3-20-07 Spring
At seven minutes past eight (eastern daylight time) this evening, the spring equinox will occur and it will mark the beginning of the Spring season. The first full day of Spring will be tomorrow, March 21st.
Every year, I look forward to the first day of Spring because, in my soul, this is the real beginning of the year to come. We can go by all sorts of different calendars that start each year at different points, but in the northern latitudes of this planet, Spring signals the rebirth of the flora which has been dormant through the winter months.
Of course, this particular Winter has been anything but typical, here in the northeast USA. We saw record high temperatures being set, over and over again, through October, November, December, and January. I'm over a half century old, and I've lived here in the northeast all but one year of my life, but I can't remember a winter like this one. We've only had two snowstorms this year that had any amount of snow that needed to be plowed, shoveled, or removed with the snowblower. They both occured within a couple weeks, during this current month.
The forecast for the next five days has temperatures rising to the point where, this weekend, temperatures will be into the 60's. I guess it's safe for me to assume that spring really is right around the corner. In fact, as I write this, it's only three hours away...
I spent a year in Los Angeles in the early 1980's. On New Year's day 1983, I swam in the Pacific Ocean and it was not a "polar bear" event... it was a warm sunny day, in the 70's, and the water was warm. That year stretched my seasonal sense, the sense of changing seasons, to the limit. There didn't appear to be any real change, the whole time I was there. The lowest temperature that occured while I was there was all the way down to about the mid-50's. That morning, I saw grown men wearing snorkel jackets with the hoods up, and drawn tight. I just wore a shirt. I remember standing there outside a restaurant talking to one of the LA natives, whose teeth were chattering, and who couldn't believe that I wasn't wearing a coat.
Temperatures in the mid-50's is spring-like weather, as far as I'm concerned.
The signs of Spring, the things that hit me and register "it's really Spring" include driving with the window open, and seeing that one or two day period where the buds on the trees suddenly burst open into leaves. There's something magical about that day when it's suddenly there, all those leaves unfolding on the trees.
There's also the final disappearance of the piles of snow. When it snows, it gets piled up in various places by plows, snowblowers and shovelers. These piles can be quite high in some places, and the bigger the pile, the more likely it will persist for quite some time into the warming weather. I tend to refer to them as "glacial deposits" and they seem to behave like some sort of glacial mass in many instances. If a big pile of snow has been made in a spot that doesn't get much sunlight on it, it can last well into the Spring. It really has to get hot out for several days before these shaded monsters finally melt away. And, as with a glacial mass, what's left behind is a lot of gravel.
I really like the changing of the seasons here in the northeast. The four seasons are distinct divisions to the year, and the transitions between them, although merely dates on calendars, nonetheless keep me looking forward to each one, year after year.
Every year, I look forward to the first day of Spring because, in my soul, this is the real beginning of the year to come. We can go by all sorts of different calendars that start each year at different points, but in the northern latitudes of this planet, Spring signals the rebirth of the flora which has been dormant through the winter months.
Of course, this particular Winter has been anything but typical, here in the northeast USA. We saw record high temperatures being set, over and over again, through October, November, December, and January. I'm over a half century old, and I've lived here in the northeast all but one year of my life, but I can't remember a winter like this one. We've only had two snowstorms this year that had any amount of snow that needed to be plowed, shoveled, or removed with the snowblower. They both occured within a couple weeks, during this current month.
The forecast for the next five days has temperatures rising to the point where, this weekend, temperatures will be into the 60's. I guess it's safe for me to assume that spring really is right around the corner. In fact, as I write this, it's only three hours away...
I spent a year in Los Angeles in the early 1980's. On New Year's day 1983, I swam in the Pacific Ocean and it was not a "polar bear" event... it was a warm sunny day, in the 70's, and the water was warm. That year stretched my seasonal sense, the sense of changing seasons, to the limit. There didn't appear to be any real change, the whole time I was there. The lowest temperature that occured while I was there was all the way down to about the mid-50's. That morning, I saw grown men wearing snorkel jackets with the hoods up, and drawn tight. I just wore a shirt. I remember standing there outside a restaurant talking to one of the LA natives, whose teeth were chattering, and who couldn't believe that I wasn't wearing a coat.
Temperatures in the mid-50's is spring-like weather, as far as I'm concerned.
The signs of Spring, the things that hit me and register "it's really Spring" include driving with the window open, and seeing that one or two day period where the buds on the trees suddenly burst open into leaves. There's something magical about that day when it's suddenly there, all those leaves unfolding on the trees.
There's also the final disappearance of the piles of snow. When it snows, it gets piled up in various places by plows, snowblowers and shovelers. These piles can be quite high in some places, and the bigger the pile, the more likely it will persist for quite some time into the warming weather. I tend to refer to them as "glacial deposits" and they seem to behave like some sort of glacial mass in many instances. If a big pile of snow has been made in a spot that doesn't get much sunlight on it, it can last well into the Spring. It really has to get hot out for several days before these shaded monsters finally melt away. And, as with a glacial mass, what's left behind is a lot of gravel.
I really like the changing of the seasons here in the northeast. The four seasons are distinct divisions to the year, and the transitions between them, although merely dates on calendars, nonetheless keep me looking forward to each one, year after year.
posted by Jeff Barnard at 5:36 PM
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