Winter Returns

A tulip is weighed down by snow (Larchmont, New York)—April 16, 2014. Just days earlier, spring had asserted itself quite forcefully with the temperature rising to 77°F (25.0°C) on April 13 and 75° (23.9°C) on April 14 in New York City. However, the spring party was brought to an abrupt end during the afternoon of the 15th. Just ahead of a strong cold front, the temperature peaked at 63°F (17.2°C) at 4:01 pm EDT. Afterward, much colder air swept away spring’s warmth as a steady rain developed. During the night, the rain changed to sleet and then snow as the temperature dove. The snowfall blanketed the ground and even roadways in the New York City suburbs.

One could easily borrow from an account published in the April 22, 1835 edition of Baltimore’s Southern Patriot concerning a late-season snowfall that occurred on April 15-16 of that year to describe this year’s mid-April snowstorm. That newspaper wrote:

His hoary frost, his fleecy snow,
Descend and clothe the ground.

In the wake of the snowfall, the temperature bottomed out at 31°F (-0.6°C) in New York City. That was New York City’s first April freeze since April 9, 2007. It was also the City’s coldest reading after April 15 since April 16, 1943 when the temperature fell to 30°F (-1.1°C).

P.S. For those wondering about the fate of the tulip and other flowers, the above tulip, other tulips and daffodils all rebounded very nicely following the snowfall.