Sure, we've already had temperatures in the 90s, and thunderstorms. And the blossoms are already falling off the trees.
But still, in a few places around the region, the snow heaps built up by plows and 'dozers during February's record snowstorms are still melting, even during the second weekend in April. I have no idea whether this is a record. I'm sure the NWS doesn't track such things. But I sure can't remember a year when snow, in any form, has lingered so long.
Anyway, a few faithful readers have been keeping a photographic record of the BIG MELT. Among them is Charlie Charnigo, in Abottstown, Pa., who has been taking snapshots of a pile near his job in Lancaster, Pa. He says:
"Every Friday I eat my lunch near it. I began to take pix on the 19th of Feb. and have been every week since. . . I am thinking it will last until May unless we have some warm rain. It was well over 30 feet tall, about 100 wide I guess and 200 long."
Here's how Charlie's heap looked a month later, on March 19. Keep an eye on the front-loader on the right, which appears not to have been moved since the storm. It provides scale to the pictures.
And finally, here is the snow pile as it looked last Friday, April 9, more than two months after the snow began to fly. Thanks to Charlie for sharing his pictures.