Why is this winter so long? (Pittsburgh, Meadville: house, stats, garden)

[noblerare]

Ugh....it's already April and it's snowing today???

[Johnny C]

It's not. Pretty normal actually. Spring doesn't really happen here. One day it stops snowing and the next day it is 80F.

[Twenty Years in the Burgh]

After several years of relatively mild winters, this is the first "real" one we've had in a while. Heck, I moved several years ago, bringing two bags of unopened salt with me; it's taken me until this winter to finally break into that second bag. :-) Mother Nature is rather indifferent to the calendar notion of springtime, so having some snowfall in April isn't historically atypical. Think that the stat is that it's snowed forty-seven out of the last fifty years in April. Call me an oddball, but I'm enjoying this weather and am not looking forward to the humidity of the summer months.

[eschaton]

Keep in mind the back half of February was an unseasonably warm "false spring." We had a couple unseasonably warm days in January as well, but they were the more typical "warm winter" days for Pittsburgh - rainy and in the 50s/60s.

March was getting a bit unbearable, but more recently it's been getting well above freezing consistently, even if it's dropping down at night, which helps. Tonight or tomorrow night should be (knock on wood) the last evenings with overnight lows below freezing.

It's wreaking havoc with my wife's garden planning though.

[svband76]

It's been brutal even since the Christmas season. Recall those high temps in the teens for like 3 weeks straight.

[Goinback2011]

It's not usually this cold for this long in April. It's 35F right now at my house with snow flurries. That's a January or February temperature. Ready for Spring.

[jea6321]

we had a full on spring style Feb this year with record highs and record rainfall, and then winter showed back up through march and is lingering. Ironically it wasn't all that snowy this winter despite it being a very cold Dec-Jan. The Great Lakes froze over so early that we didn't really get any lake effect storms forming.

I don't have the stats, but Id wager that its been one of the gloomiest 1st quarters in a long time though. I don't think the sun was out more than 10 days Jan-March. Seasonal affective disorder on people seems to be abundant this year.

[Flamingo13]

Climate Change is real.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Twenty Years in the Burgh

After several years of relatively mild winters, this is the first "real" one we've had in a while. Heck, I moved several years ago, bringing two bags of unopened salt with me; it's taken me until this winter to finally break into that second bag. :-) Mother Nature is rather indifferent to the calendar notion of springtime, so having some snowfall in April isn't historically atypical. Think that the stat is that it's snowed forty-seven out of the last fifty years in April. Call me an oddball, but I'm enjoying this weather and am not looking forward to the humidity of the summer months.

I prefer the cooler weather over the heat as well, so I'm not complaining much, but having it feel more like January all weekend and today is a little crazy lol. You do bring up a good point though, we have had a lot of warm winters and springs lately, so compared to recent years, so we are certainly due for a cooler spring than normal. I remember seeing the NWS Pittsburgh tweet over the weekend though this is the most snow in April we've had since 2005, so it's likely we won't have anything like this month for some time.

[Jay_F]

Kind of reminds me of the times we have had a few inches of snow for Halloween, and a few inches of snow for the opener of trout season in Beaver Co., around mid-April ... Hardly shocking, but I'm muphere in Meadville, and dang it feels like a long spell of cold, snowy weather... Heavy dusting on the ground as I type, 26 degrees.