Green, Not White

The snow expected for St, Patrick's Day in the New York City area stayed away, remaining confined to Delaware, southern New Jersey and parts of Maryland and Virginia, along with Washington, D.C.  That's three wintry bullets in a row the Tri-State area has dodged.  I guess we have the luck of the Irish.

But maybe not for long.  Because as soon as the vernal equinox arrives, marking the start of "spring," it will get cold again, and there could be new record low temperatures set early next week . . . and oh yes, a little snow.

Right now, long-range forecasts for the greater New York area for early next week suggest flurries and snow showers at the most, with daytime temperatures above freezing (albeit only nominally above freezing, say 35 to 40).   And the angle of the sun in late March suggests that any snow that does fall and accumulate won't stick around for long.  But history shows it occasionally begins to look a lot like Christmas in early, not late, December, and sometimes even in late November (we had a white Thanksgiving in 1989).  And not only has there been snow for Easter (and not just when Easter falls in March), New York City had accumulating snow as late as April 19  - in 1983, when the city got just under an inch.  Even the unflappable TV personality Mark Goodman, an MTV presenter at the time, was flabbergasted.  "There's snow in New York," he said on his MTV show, "it's almost May!"

Conclusions?  A change of season is no reason to expect a change of temperatures, and autumn isn't just called "fall" for what the leaves on the trees do.  If you want a season in which it's guaranteed not to snow, wait for summer.