Early Morning with Snow

Today is the official first day of spring, and I have 8-10 inches of snow left, though the snow is starting to melt fast. The sun of mid-March is stronger than the sun of mid-winter, so even when the temperatures are the same, on a sunny day I will see more melting now than in February.

Today, the sun was just poking through the trees as I headed out onto the public road, and it seemed a good photo for an equinox day. Here, where the road allows more sun to strike the edges of the forest, the snow cover is already far thinner than it is up my lane. A little more sunlight makes a lot of difference.

Although it is too soon to tell, it is possible that this snowfall was this area's onion snow. I'm not sure the term is a universal one, but around here an onion snow is the last snow of the season, after which it's considered safe to plant your onions. Naturally, it's a little difficult to say with certainty when a snow is the season's last snow, so the question of whether it will be or won't be the last snow is the kind of thing neighbors jaw about over the fence.