Signs of Spring?

I've put my parka to pasture, the longest skating rink in the world is now closed, the Brier's done, organizing for the Winnipeg Folk Festival has already begun, ... and the smell of thawing dogshit is not far off.

The spring equinox occurs at 5:48 a.m. UTC (that's GMT to you) on Thursday March 20. It happens simultaneously in all time zones, so for example it will be 1:48 a.m. EDT.

The sun at that instant will be directly above the Equator, creating equal amounts of daylight and darkness at all latitudes (except the polar regions, where it will simply circle around the entire horizon for 24 hours).

The full moon occurs on Friday March 21. This is why Easter is so early this year; it's always on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring.

Why does spring always seem so short? Is it just in Toronto, or does most of Canada experience the phenomenon where you're heating your home one day and then two days later you're complaining about the sweltering heat?

Environment Canada is a lot more confident about its forecast for the start of spring over the next month, and is calling for below normal temperatures across the country.

Through May, the forecast is colder than normal for the territories, the provinces west of Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, and in the northern half of Quebec.

Most of the country is also expected to get above-average rainfall.

- Canadian Press

And having started on March 19, does it not in fact continue "over the next month"?

Will they also be resetting their watches to 12 midnight?

I hate all that but I hate even more deeply not being able to ride my bicycle and get into shape. Sure, I walk (I can't run) but it is not enough in terms of exercise.

It wasn't nearly as cold a year ago. I don't know how I can keep from getting very, very depressed (this means isolation and not enough exercise).

Happy No Rooz to those who celebrate it!

lagatta, I hear you. I walked to the streetcar stop today thinking, some first day of spring this is. At least it's sunny. But it's not nearly warm enough for my liking!

Freezing rain closed the schools here in Saint John today.

It snowed here a bit last night, but seems to have melted off the roofs and sidewalks. Of course, it is very icy anyway -- it thaws by day and still goes down to around -10 at night -- but there is a little more bare pavement every day. The snowbanks aren't really snow anymore -- mostly ice crystals with a crunchy surface layer.

We have exposed mud in the back yard today. Luna, our English Setter pup, has officially become "Slough-foot Lou". It'll be another month before there aren't dog-prints all over the floor from Luna and Kali sneaking off the back landing and trucking through the dining room.

We took the wild girls to kung fu class this morning and there were a long row of bright-coloured rubber boots in the front hall -- there are only 3 boys in the whole class, and all the girls had their boots on today. Kind of cool in the context, I thought. [img]cool.gif" border="0[/img]

And thanks for the reminder, lagatta -- I'd better get out the cat repellent before Yugioh, the neighbor's (un-neutered!) tomcat marks my front door/porch furniture... [img]eek.gif" border="0[/img]

I'm pretty sure you've had more out there.

Are people scrambling to shovel off their roofs? We noticed a few disquieting cracks in the plaster, so I've been spending most of the weekend shoveling snow off the roof. It was up to 5' deep in some parts.

the end is near:
after a cold Easter, forecast for Montreal is 5C midweek and lots of rain;

after that I predict SPRING !!!

I doubt it was 34C up there [img]eek.gif" border="0[/img]

but even 34 F would be an improvement and a sign of spring ....

wa-hoo ! [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img]

Stephen, be VERY careful.

I think Quйbec got about the worst of it - some of the worst snowfalls blew over here. I'm not actually surprised that Quйbec might get more snow than the Lower North Shore, although the latter is obviously colder.

Although it is still cold here (damn!) the snow seems to be sort of evaporating in the bright sunshine.

Montreal forecast:
a week above O C for the first time since November, and loads of rain:
[url=http://www.cbc.ca/weather/conditions.jsp?station=YUL]http://www.cbc.ca/w...

It's -20C here, but at least there's no wind.

Mйtйomйdia's forecast has temperatures that will be below the seasonal average for the next [b]two weeks[/b], and snow is forecast for at least half of it...

The snow was almost gone on the valley floor here in the Rockies, after several weeks of melting. Then this am we wake to 6", though it is only -2, so it should start to melt. However, not before we have to shovel.

I love snow buntings!

*looks out window and sees the high winds blowing snow all over the place*

*cries because she lives in Toronto*

Frankly, I'm pretty snowed-out and what's not helping is that I'm hearing that despite it being Spring, Toronto will continue to be cold and snowy until May.

Geneva, we've had several melts and thaws since November, fortunately as there is a hell of a lot of frigging snow.

I'm going out for a walk now, and to pick up some food for supper. One sign of Spring I could do without is all the frigging cigarette butts everywhere - and I have seen small children and animals poking at them - yecch!

That and the dogshit but at least dogshit is natural. Not good fertiliser though, as dogs are carnivores.

Renzo (my cat) is getting soft in his elder cathood; he hasn't been out since the November storms, and thus I know he has not provided any little surprises for me to clean up soon - but still, we have to do a garden and yard cleanup at the co-op.