CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The arrival of spring at noon Thursday was welcome news to snow weary West Virginians.
Spring is officially underway when vernal equinox occurs. The axis of earth becomes perpendicular with the sun. Typically it happens around March 20 or 21. Mother Nature evidently doesn’t pay much attention to the date.
“We’re not quite out of the winter yet, even though the calendar may say it,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Jonathan Wolfe in Charleston. “We’ll get to near 70, but then on Monday we’ll go back below freezing.”
Still West Virginians welcome any sign of spring after enduring months of snow, sleet, ice, potholes, salt trucks, and school cancellations.
“It’s definitely the worst one we’ve had in 20 years,” Wolfe said. “But in terms of the statistics we have all-time, it ranks about 30th coldest in 119 years.”
Wolfe said nothing in particular stood out as the single cause of the more harsh winter conditions or the pending cold which will stick around for nearly a month.
“Pretty much going to stay below normal for temperature for the next month,” Wolfe said. “But precipitation chances are near or below normal.”