Friday was a sleety, stay-at-home day, and yesterday I cleared a crust of snow and freezing rain from our cars early in the day so they would bake clean in the sun. Yesterday, the unshoveled sidewalks in our neighborhood–all the sidewalks, since you can’t shovel freezing rain–were crunchy with a topping of snow over ice, which gave good traction underfoot. This morning, though, even the snow has frozen slick, and we’re expecting rain and temperatures above freezing–melting weather–tomorrow into the week, which will turn everything into a slippery slop.
Welcome to not-quite Spring in Massachusetts.
I’ve lived in New England for three decades now–most of my adult life–and for all that time I’ve said New England doesn’t have a proper spring. Instead, we go straight from snow to mud to heat, without the weeks of temperate weather and wildflowers the Midwest gets in March. In New England, March comes in like a lion then stays, the threat of spring snowstorms lurking into April.
But climate change is affecting this: we get as much rain as snow these days, along with an abundance of bare frozen ground. Last weekend’s storm dumped more than a foot of snow on our backyard: only the second plowable snowfall of the season, and the first accumulation to stay a while.
This coming week’s temperatures in the 40s with rain aren’t quite Spring, but they certainly aren’t winter, either. Sunlight is the cleanest way to melt snow, shrinking it steadily into the dry air. Rain melts snow, too, but in a way that turns streets, sidewalks, and backyards into puddles by day and skating rinks by night.
Hoarded Ordinaries 
Feb 6, 2022 at 8:30 pm
After enjoying days with highs in the 50s and 60s during December and January, Ground Hog Day brought snow to our area. The next morning was snow-covered and overcast; it was about noon when the sun began melting the snow. By 3 pm, the ground was mud. Saturday was super-cold (but sunny), with the high temperature not reaching 40 degrees and the low dipping down to just below 20 degrees. Today was a cloudless high of 56 degrees, while tonight’s low is forecasted to be 30 degrees. By mid-week we should be enjoying 60-degree temperatures again. I hope that is the end of our cold weather. Our springs bring wind and dust storms, usually during Lent.
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Feb 6, 2022 at 9:06 pm
Stay safe and try not to slip! Sorry to hear about the lack of a true spring. I didn’t know New England was that way. At least you guys get a beautiful fall.
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Feb 7, 2022 at 5:48 am
We have maybe a different definition of spring in New England but it is spring and it’s beautiful. I think maybe it’s just longer (March thru mid-June) with different phases that last longer than in other places so newcomers have a hard time identifying it all as spring. It starts in March when the days have gotten longer, the sun is stronger, and you can hear the melting water trickling under the snowbanks. The sound of hope. By April, the snowbanks have receded, mud and potholes are out but so are the pussy willows. May begins with the crocuses peeping above ground and ends with green grass, daffodils and lilacs for Memorial Day. Planting begins in June and days that begin with cool crisp Canadian air coming down and end with peepers singing in the evening. The sound of quiet joy.
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