Two years ago we turned the furnace off March 1st. Last year we shut down the wood stove March 7th (delayed a few days due to hosting a baby shower.) And this year? Are we ready to fire-down in 7 days? On the one hand, it is getting warmer outside. I’m pretty sure we’re done with below-zero (F) temps, and maybe done with single digits, too. The days are often up to 30, and when it’s sunny at midday you can actually feel the heat reflecting off the snow.
Ah yes. The snow. Just glancing out the window, you’d never guess we’re 20 days from spring. It looks like the north pole out there. Which I think is what induces some skepticism about the idea of shutting down the heat any time soon. So what will happen?
February 28, 2011 at 9:36 am |
20 days from the vernal equinox…which is not the beginning of spring…it’s just the vernal equinox.
(Pet peeve, sorry.)
February 28, 2011 at 10:22 am |
P.S. From Wikipedia: “For most temperate regions, signs of spring appear long before the middle of March, but the folklore of 21 March being the “first day of spring” persists”. Long BEFORE the middle of March?!? Haaaaaahaaa… right.
February 28, 2011 at 11:00 pm
“Folklore”? Ugh. Find me a reference that’s in the the first half of the 20th c. even.
Round these parts (northern NJ), we definitely hit spring in early March. Daffodils pop up, days routinely in the 50s and even 60s, smells like spring too…which is not to say we don’t get March snow.
For the record, average high hits 50 on March 13:
http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/ZipWeather.asp?ZipCode=07040&Month=Mar
March 1, 2011 at 6:41 am
Looks like our average high around here doesn’t hit 50 until April 7.
I’m trying to guess when the last bit of snow will disappear from my neighborhood. I’m thinking it could be later than April 7, this year…
February 28, 2011 at 10:14 am |
Yeah, well, if you define “spring” as a period of time during which your yard is NOT under snow, then we definitely will not have spring by the vernal equinox!