Today was one of those days which makes you happy to be living in the south, especially during the winter.
I don't want to take anything away from my friends in the Northeast who were excited to make it to the forties today and who will like lose it as they briefly visit the fifties tomorrow.
However, the cold snap headed our way after we get into the seventies tomorrow will likely not be very serious in the South.
Our ten day forecast on the Carolina shore has seven days in the sixties, two days in the fifties, and only one day in the upper forties. I can live with that forecast.
Even in the mountains around Roanoke, Virginia, you only add another day of forties and swap a couple of sixty degree days for fifty degree days. Winter is on the way out. We might still get whacked with a big storm, but this is the South, and the sun will win.
My friends just west of Boston have a much uglier forecast. Friday, February 18, when they make it to 52F, is their only day in the fifties. They get one day when they make it to 40F. Another day when they do not make it out of the twenties, and the other seven days, they will be working their way through the thirties. That sounds a lot like winter to me.
On top of that I see one night when the lows drop into the single digits and more than a couple of nights when the lows are in the teens. It brings back memories of when our son was born in March in Canada. It was minus twenty Fahrenheit.
Having lived in Canada, I can tell you exactly what happens after you descend back into winter after a quick but incomplete thaw. You just get a denser snow pack whick takes even more heat to melt.
Yesterday on our mountain in Roanoke I saw some bulbs venturing to stick their green tips into the atmosphere. In another month I am counting on green grass in the Roanoke area, and some blooms on the strawberry plants down along the North Carolina coast.
It is the time of the year when we start to experience spring in the South and those folks living north of here get to bury their noses in seed catalogs and hope for better days.
