Lovely February day today isn’t it? Temperatures are in the upper 30’s and the sky is crystal clear, and blue. But wait, its really late March. It is the second full day of spring! We just dug ourselves out from another foot plus of snow on Tuesday the nineteenth. What is going on here? Last year if you recall, we had ten consecutive days of record warm temperatures during the middle of March. In fact, that streak closely mirrored the average temperatures usually seen in June! Everything was racing ahead of schedule. My orchard trees went from full dormancy to about halfway toward bloom! That was about eight weeks ahead of normal. And, with the rapid exit of snow earlier in the month all of a sudden, insects were out in full force too as if it were June. Dry conditions made for a very dicey time for area forest lands also.

In Concord NH on:

• March 19th 2012 the maximum temperature was 81.0 degrees F
• March 19th 2013 the maximum temperature was 32.0 degrees F

Last year’s Ice Out on Lake Winnipesaukee occurred on March 23rd. I don’t think we’ll be anywhere close to that this year! The average daily high temperatures for through March 20 this year in Concord NH was 39.8 degrees F as compared with an average high temperature for the entire month last year (2012) of 54 degrees F!! March of 2012 was the warmest on record at least for NH and many other states. With just seven days left in the month, and with yet another large storm system heading for us, March 2013 could end up being one of the snowiest for many states. With any luck for us living in New England, this latest weather maker will slide off the south coast giving just a glancing blow to our friends in RI and out on the Cape.