So I guess Spring is here then?

[algia]

....and they are so beautiful I want to hug them (except for the many bees in them)
These are in front of the Galleria mall, a whole bunch of them...







.

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

OK, it's been awhile since I've been around flowering crabs. I just can't believe that cherries in Pittsburgh are blooming before cherries in Southern MD.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I definitely remember all the moderate snow days, since I am always watching to see if I need to shovel our sidewalks--many times it was possible, but then it melted (I think I shoveled twice all winter).

That was the problem with the winter for us snow lovers. It snowed, but it just warmed up into the 40's or even 50's two days after it fell.

[Caladium]

Some individual cherry trees bloom earlier than the others. All it takes is a few warm days, and you can see blooms as early as January. I don't know why, maybe that particular tree has some sort of mutation. I used to be worried that it meant the tree was unhealthy but I've watched this one oddball tree do the same thing for years now and it seems healthy enough.

[subdivisions]

I've been in Pittsburgh 8 years now, and this is the mildest winter we've had in that time. I am truly shocked to hear the "37 inches" figure - from my perspective it seemed like less than 6.

I was really amazed this year to find all of my bulb flowers starting to poke out of the ground in mid-February. My daffodils are in full bloom right now, to my calculations at least 2-3 weeks earlier than any other year. My roses and clematis are also leafing out as of last week, again at least 2-3 weeks early.

The weather report says we are supposed to be in the 70s for the next 10 days at least. I'm a big fan of warm weather, so I don't mind the situation in that respect, but from a larger perspective it doesn't seem like a good thing. I am particularly worried that we will have a really bad bug season this summer (especially the dreaded stink bugs, and I am also an arachnophobe), and that it will just get brutally hot and humid around August or so.

[algia]

What is that?

Originally Posted by subdivisions

I am also an arachnophobe

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by algia

What is that?

Let me google that for you

[psuinagc]

Originally Posted by greg42

I suppose that makes sense. True, official, accurate measurements would be of the water content I'm sure, not so much putting a stick in accumulated snow. That wouldn't be too scientific. So that's how they would measure the non-accumulating snow. A collection device would still be gathering the snow (water) and be able to measure. A precise enough one can probably measure down to hundredths of an inch; I usually see amounts down to hundredths on weather sites. Then there would be some standard conversion factor I gather to convert it into inches of snow. Of course for that to work something or someone has to be keeping track of when the precip is rain and when it's snow. Wonder if they can even automate that, might have to be a human spotter....

Here is the National Weather Service's Guide to measuring snow:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...c1pkUgJSJSNufg