Roller Coaster to Coastal Spring
Over the decades I have seen few springs arrive without a little weather drama. I was once surprised by snow when I was trying to mow our yard in April in Roanoke, Virginia.
Another time we endured breathtaking lows on the way to the hospital when it dropped to minus twenty Fahrenheit when our son was born in the middle of March in Canada.
Here on the Carolina coast it is not too much of surprise to get some very warm days well before the official start of spring. March of 2012 had enough heat to get me thinking about wading in salt water. At the other end of the spectrum we have gotten a touch of snow in the first few days March. With that kind of record even we coastal residents stay on snowflake patrol until early March but it is very rare. This year February has been a real roller coaster.
We always thought that the cruelest month of the year in Maritime Canada was April. You would get warm sunshine one day and the next day you could wake up to a few inches of snow on the ground. It was not unusual to have snow hanging around in the woods in early May.
Just over 1,200 miles south of Fredericton, New Brunswick, on North Carolina’s Southern Outer Banks the weather is understandably a little different. I bounce back and forth on our most challenging month, but most years here on the White Oak River it is February. February’s cool weather can linger into March. It can be a very cold month sometimes bringing us ice which is much more common in January. Yet even with that history, we can often easily slip into spring before February is over.
Last Sunday, February 9, 2015, we managed to sneak over 60F. I took my skiff out on the river on Saturday the day before our sixty degree Sunday. The air temperature was nice but the water temperature was sobering at 44.5F. The river water did not even look inviting and I love being out on the river. This coming Sunday, February 16, 2015, our predicted high temperature is only 31F. That night we will drop down to 18F. Two days later the forecast is for a couple of days in the sixties. I will not be out on the water for any length of time until we have put together a week of those warm days with no nights below fifty.
I have often joked that spring unfolds quickly in the mountains compared to the coast where it takes longer for things to warm up. We get signs of spring at the coast much earlier in the season than our friends in the mountains. However, once the spring starts in the mountains and Piedmont, it almost explodes while we can wait weeks for our coastal spring to reach its peak.
We have a small crocus patch that has been blooming for a month and this week our first daffodil decided to bloom but that does not mean that spring is here yet. The daffodil managed to survive twenty four hours of strong winds. Since it appears determined to survive I will help it through the spell of cold weather scheduled for this weekend.
Valentine’s Day is rapidly approaching and I already have seeds in the ground and tomato plants growing in my office. This first week or so of February 2015, has not been one of those which seduces you into thinking about being on the water. I did get a hike in over at the Point on January 19 and the pictures will keep me going for a while, but it is true warmth that will signal the coming of spring and we just have not had any of that yet.
However, I remain on alert for some serious heat and at least in my dreams, I am expecting it any day now.
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We hope to get our next newsletter out around Valentine’s Day.
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