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Winter, where’d you go?

March 3, 2012 at 5:44 pm 6

cherry blossoms 25th st

Spring doesn’t technically start until March 20th, but on 25th Street it’s already sprung.

Photo by: Mark Reutter

This cherry tree, found blossoming along 25th Street near St Paul today, pretty much says it all – Baltimore has just passed through the year’s three coldest months with some of the mildest temperatures recorded in history.

Not since 1949-50, in fact, did the city have it so warm. That year the average temperature from December 1 through the end of February was 42 degrees. This year: slightly below 41 degrees.

Not just mild but dry. The city had less than 2 inches of snow for the season, about 10% of its average – and a far cry from the 64-plus inches of Snowmageddon in 2009-10. According to this Washington Post story, Baltimore was the greatest snow “underachiever” in the country.

While March snowstorms are not unknown in this part of the world, nature has already responded to the prevailing conditions. Take a look at these daffodils ablaze on the median strip of University Parkway today.

Tulips on 900 block of West University Parkway today. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

Daffodils on 900 block of West University Parkway. (Photo by Mark Reutter)

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  • http://twitter.com/vineviz Vincent Vizachero

    Those are daffodils, not tulips, on West University.

  • Bmorepanic

     Umm, those yellow things are daffodils or jonquils – never been clear on the distinction myself.  

    • Anonymous

      Thanks Bmorepanic and Vince V., fixed it. My colleague has clearly been spending too much time crunching numbers in City Hall and needs to get out and smell the flowers! :) F.S.

  • Anonymous

    yup, too many EWOs = not enough remedial botany.  -MR

  • Surfstuff55

    Not to bum anybody out, but has anyone seen any robins yet?

  • Unellu

    Spring 2012–Baltimore

    “Those are not tulips–
    They are daffodils!”
    the accurate ones assert–
    wanting all living things–
    great and small–
    identified properly
    and classified correctly–
    but it matters not a whit-
    because they are both bulbs–
    woken up by warmth,
    colored by the palette of spring,
    springing earlier than early in 2012–
    even as winter hides
    watching in its cave
    morose but patient–
    its cold claws doubly sharpened–
    blizzards compacted in its cheeks–
    plotting revenge against spring–
    for its premature appearance,
    for strutting its sartorial splendor–
    and stealing the thunder–
    with millions of frilly daffodils–
    in whorls of yellow–
    in magic carpets–
    as a sorceress would–
    giddy with spells–
    disrespectful of old man winter–
    escaping from way down under–
    cavorting with all folks willing–
    high stepping to the erotic trilling
    of birds–that’s spring–
    earlier than early in 2012.

    Usha Nellore

     

     

     

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